


Tether Yourself to Me

by Lyonface



Series: Paring Figs - P5R Omegaverse AU [1]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Age Difference, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Anal, Forced Orgasm, Happy Ending, Illustrations, Knotting, Literal Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Masturbation, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Nesting, Persona 5 Spoilers, Persona 5: The Royal, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers, Pheromones, Post-November 20 Interrogation (Persona 5), Protagonist goes by Akira Kurusu, Sae Niijima briefly appears, Scent Kink, Sex Toys, Teacher-Student Relationship, There is sexual touching when someone's asleep, dubcon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:46:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 37,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26497360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyonface/pseuds/Lyonface
Summary: Only Persona 5 Royal Spoilers pertain to Maruki's Confidant. The rest are random spoilers for the Vanilla game up to the 21st of November.---In and out of consciousness in the back of Sae Niijima's car as they speed away from the interrogation building, all Akira could really seem to concentrate on was wanting to finally feel safe somewhere. He knew they succeeded this time, for now, but he's shaken and exhausted. The drugs were still affecting him, and all he wanted to do was feel warm and taken care of for a little while before being thrust back into the reality of being a fugitive. So, when Niijima asked him if he wanted to go to the cafe, his brain immediately answered the place he wanted to be the most:"Go to...Maruki's place."
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Maruki Takuto, Kurusu Akira/Maruki Takuto, Maruki Takuto/Persona 5 Protagonist
Series: Paring Figs - P5R Omegaverse AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2131578
Comments: 26
Kudos: 113





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Illustrations all done by me~!
> 
> Also still no beta we're goin fast and hard bby

Sunday, November 20th. Sundays were normally supposed to be the day that Maruki would clean up around his apartment or relax, but he couldn’t seem to resist the overwhelming urge to return to his research, even if his paper was complete. The reflex to work on the paper, to turn his mind at any spare moment back to it became a normal and unconscious process long ago, whether as just a distraction from his day to day life or with the drive and determination to finally complete it. So, now that it was over, just cleaning up his apartment felt like an empty use of a day.

He was lucky that Shibusawa had agreed to help peer-review his completed analysis after running into him all these years later by happenstance. To think that he’d see him at the restaurant he took Akira Kurusu to to celebrate his progress, it really was tempting to think of his former student as a lucky charm of sorts. Well, lucky charm was a bit objectifying. Perhaps it was more appropriate to say that he brought good fortune to the people he interacted with. His friends all seemed to be in better spirits when he spoke to them back at Shujin during their individual counseling sessions. They always referred to their friend group, every one of them, as a recent positive change in their life, and that group held Akira as the central point.

The former counselor sighed and pushed up his glasses to rub against the indentations left by the nose pads against his skin. There he went again, thinking about him. He needed to distract himself better than this.

He turned on the television and the news started, at least to have something to listen to as he made his way to the adjoining kitchen. Resigning himself to some apple cider while he considered what to busy himself with, he took out a mug and container of what remained of home-made cider he’d decided to experiment with not long after he left the academy. He stirred the mixture around since it tended to settle and poured himself a glass and thrust it into the microwave to reheat it. After a moment to decide the best time, he punched the numbers in and set it to go, putting the cider back in the refrigerator. He settled back against the countertop and look at the news broadcast.

“...just a highschool student. How do you think he was contacting the others?”

“The police can search all online communications, so regardless of how they got in contact with each other, the others are bound to slip up eventually.”

It was the two casters typical of this time of day on this channel. Considering they were having a conversation about the topic rather than simply announcing and moving on, it must be big for the day. Maruki hummed as he continued to watch, reaching to push his bangs out of the way of his glasses.

“Still, it seems the rest of the recent Phantom Thieves’ victims have all gone comatose, so there was actual harm done here.”

Maruki froze. Wait.

“Considering that all of it has been accomplished without any physical violence as well, until the supposed leader speaks, their methods will continue to remain a mystery.”

He stared at the two men on the television for a long moment as his microwave hummed beside him. No, wait. The leader...of the Phantom Thieves was caught? Did that...no that would mean…

His microwave beeped suddenly and he jumped, wincing a little bit when he nearly tripped over his own feet to settle back to standing. Taking a moment to sigh, he turned back and opened the door to the miniature oven and pulled the mug out, his hand on the handle just long enough to take it out and put it on the countertop but not long enough to hurt. He shut the door and looked down at his steaming hot cider, contemplating. If Akira had been caught by police… He was already here in Tokyo on probation and he was only a little more than halfway through it. If it really was him, they would surely mention that, depending on how much information the police gave to the press. They certainly wouldn’t leave out a criminal record.

Almost as if on cue, he caught the men continuing their conversation as he reached to open a cabinet and pull a shaker of cinnamon down.

“...placed on probation for assault.”

Maruki grimaced. No, it really was him. They really did have him in custody. God that meant...if they could get evidence on him...that there was no way he was going to avoid prison. Well...luckily that was virtually impossible. Even if he didn’t really know first hand how the phantom thieves operated, as someone who studied cognitive psience, he’d know better than any prosecutorial staff that there was no way to serve anything against him since none of his “crimes” were committed by faculties you could identify in reality. Of course...that didn’t mean anything against how fervent the police have been. He liked to believe that making up evidence against Akira would be out of the realm of possibility, but he was wiser than that, especially when the stakes of capturing anyone remotely related to the Phantom Thieves was so high right now. They’d been labeled the number one enemy of the country at this point.

“Because of the probation he had to leave his hometown,” one of the men said, breaking into Maruki’s line of thought, “Perhaps his motive lies there?”

“An omega, and a criminal at such a young age…” the other said with disappointment.

Maruki huffed at the irrelevance of that comment as he popped open the cap to his cinnamon container, tapped a little bit into his cup, and recapped it.

There was a brief lull in the conversation and Maruki hesitated as he reached for a spoon to stir the cinnamon in and glanced back. One of the men had a hand to his ear piece and simultaneously both men had shocked looks on their faces. The feed cut to a close up camera of one as he straightened to deliver the update.

“We have breaking news,” he began, his expression neutral as he spoke, “The young man being held in custody has committed suicide. The police have just confirmed it.”

What?

Maruki’s world stopped for a moment as he stared numbly at the television, no longer hearing what the news casters were saying. The blood was rushing too loudly in his ears.

What did they just say?

Surely he was mistaken. Akira Kurusu? Committing suicide? The idea was...incomprehensible. It was the furthest thing he could imagine the young man doing.

And yet...they said it, hadn’t they? The police told them.

So...so it was true?

In his pocket, Maruki’s phone vibrated. Once…twice...thrice…

Maruki blinked finally and set his teeth together, taking a breath. He relaxed his grip on the spice container, not realizing he was squeezing it so hard, and put it down on the counter.

As his phone finally went silent, he exhaled and sagged against the solid countertop. He clenched his hands into fists. This couldn’t be it...something was wrong, surely! If he died now then… He could never...

He watched the news cast continue with no new information to give.

“Well it’ll be very difficult to ascertain their methods now,” the other speaker said.

The despair Maruki felt started to flip to rage. How dare they act...act so _flippant_ when someone like Akira…! He shook his head, reaching under his glasses to press against his eyes, the mixture of anger, disbelief, and sadness all roiling at a boil now in his chest.

His phone started vibrating again.

Half tempted to toss the thing across the room, he forced a calming breath as he took his phone out of his lounge pants pocket and glanced at the caller ID, his finger already hovering over the space the decline button would appear.

**Akira Kurusu**

His heart clenched as his eyes went wide, immediately answering the phone.

“Kurusu-kun! Are you--?”

A voice wholly unfamiliar to him cut him off. “I’m sorry, my name is Sae Niijima, but he's with me right now.”

Maruki blinked, lost for words for a moment. If he wasn’t dead, and he wasn’t in police custody…? He tried to harden his voice but all he managed to do was reduce the tremor, “And he’s all right? What’s going on? The news just said--”

He heard her click her tongue against her teeth, “Already...? Listen, I don’t have a lot of time, neither of us do.” The sound of a turn signal could be heard as she continued speaking, “The suicide is a fake and they haven’t figured it out yet. I wanted to take him back to the cafe but he told me it’s too risky to go straight there. What’s your address?”

“U-um…” Maruki started, “Are you bringing him here?”

“He wanted me to take him to your place. He said he’d be safe with you.”

A strange tight feeling gripped his heart, a good one this time, and he cleared his throat to ease it, giving her his address. After a brief exchange he hung up the phone and realized his heart was galloping in his chest. Okay, once more. He took a slow, deep breath, held it for a few moments, and then slowly released it. He just learned a lot of upsetting things in a very short amount of time, but Akira was okay. He was alive and...and coming here. His mixed feelings of anxiety, relief, and anger would ease when he finally got to confirm with his own eyes that he was okay.

He...should probably clean up. It wasn’t necessarily dirty, he didn’t really like living in unkempt spaces (which was uniquely difficult in college) but he still wanted it to be...more presentable than it was. This was Akira, after all. If there was anyone he didn’t want to disappoint or leave a bad impression on, it was him. He grimaced as he realized how weird that sounded, even to himself. He turned and grabbed his cider, taking a sip of it’s rapidly depleting warmth only to swallow it and sputter. Ugh… He took a glance into the cup and sighed, realizing he’d never stirred in the cinnamon.

\---

Just as he was putting two new cups of cider in the microwave, his apartment much more apt for someone to visit, his phone went off in his pocket again. He fished it out and answered it immediately.

“Hello?”

“We’re about to pull up to your building,” said the woman from before, Niijima-san. “Could you come down and get him? He could...use some help.”

Maruki didn’t care much for how that sounded but he agreed and hung up, setting the microwave to go and rushing to the door. He kept his house slippers on and left, stopping a moment to reach back through the doorway and grab his keys so he didn’t lock himself out, and continued down the hall. He took the stairs instead of the elevator, taking care not to slip his way down them in his haste, and pushed through the door to the lobby.

A black car pulled up on the street just as he opened the two doors to the outside and he hurried to the curb. The night was cold, but not all that much colder than it should be for November. The person in the front, presumably Niijima, was leaning back to talk between the front seats to the back seat, her hand still on the wheel. He could only just see her, the setting sun quickly taking the light of day along with it. Maruki hesitated beside the car and glanced through the back window, seeing a bit of movement and the door opened.

Maruki stepped to the side as the door slowly opened and took hold of it and leaned around, his greeting dying on his lips as he came face to face with his former student in his Shujin uniform, covered in bruises and scratches. He could smell the mixture of pheromones drift out from the car, anxious and scared. An omega and an alpha.

His grip on the door tightened and Akira glanced at him. He swallowed, “Kurusu-kun, you--?”

“Get him inside, quickly,” Niijima said from the front seat.

Maruki glanced at her, briefly making eye contact as she looked back at him, her eyes steady and serious and a little frantic. He nodded to her after a moment and leaned to let the boy have room to get out.

Akira used the door for leverage as he stood, getting out of the low seat and leaned hard on it. It was a good thing Maruki took hold of it.

Maruki extended his hand and Akira grabbed a hold of his forearm as Niijima added, “I’ll call you when it’s safe!”

Akira nodded back at her and moved out of the way so Maruki could shut the door. Without the extra support, he did his best to stand, but Maruki could feel how unsteady he was just from his grip against him. He gestured to the door and Akira walked along with him.

So many questions were flashing through his mind, the one at the forefront asking why in the _world_ he was in the state that he was. How did he get caught? Was he like this before or after being taken in by the police? Who did this to him??

“I...have a lot of questions,” Maruki said with some hesitation as he stood by the elevator and pressed the button, Akira leaning against the wall between the elevators. Even still he was a little unsteady and was squinting, presumably to concentrate. Maruki shook his head, “No, but they can wait. Have you...eaten anything?”

The boy shook his head minutely but smiled just a bit as he looked over at him, “Snacks?”

Maruki chuckled, assuming he meant that he was offering him snacks. Just like at the academy. “I’ll properly feed you this time,” he assured him, “It won’t quite be like the buffet, but I’ll get something together.”

The smile stayed on Akira’s face before dropping back to a frown as the elevator dinged. It was empty, so Maruki offered his hand but Akira declined and did his best to walk into the elevator by himself, hand always along a surface until he settled against the wall of the car. Maruki quickly forced the doors shut and pressed the button for his floor.

The silence was awkward, Maruki stuck between wanting to be caught up to speed on what was going on, what had happened, and what he could do to help, and not overloading Akira. He glanced at his former student as he kept himself aloft against the wall, looking into the middle distance with a strained look. He was covered in bruises and scrapes but, his countenance still seemed strange.

And after being in the elevator for just a few moments, it became clear that he was radiating pheromones.

Maruki shifted on his feet, the anxious feeling like grit under his skin making him itch to comfort him, bring him into his space. It was an alpha instinct, after all, but he didn’t need to overload the boy. They’d never been personable like that. Akira had always kept a low profile wherever he went, and that included his scent. If you had asked Maruki what his scent smelled like, he would have guessed something mild like honey, but he realized now that honey was only a part of it. It was hard to parse, though it was definitely similar to a fruit, figs perhaps? Figs are always difficult to describe and never taste quite the same from batch to batch. It fit him well, since the boy was like a chameleon in social situations. It smelled a little hot, but considering what he’d likely just gone through, fear wasn’t all that strange.

As the elevator dinged again to his floor, Maruki took the initiative to glance through when it opened before offering his hand to him. Akira looked at it briefly before reaching and taking hold of his forearm like before, and they made their way down the hall.

Maruki sighed with relief that they’d managed to avoid running into any of his neighbors and he took his keys out of his pocket. Okay, what would he need to provide? Dinner, that was easy. He probably wanted to shower. First aid, considering his physical state. Hmmm, clean clothes. “I know you don’t have any extra clothes…” he said as he turned the door knob, “but I might be able to find something you can wear for a while.”

Akira hesitantly nodded before walking through the front door when Maruki gestured for him to go first.

He stopped in the foyer, looking about a moment and Maruki noticed him take a deep breath, his ribcage pressing against the back of his form-fitted jacket. He tried not to linger on it too much, putting his keys on the hook by the door and shutting it, locking the knob, deadbolt, and the chain.

“Apples?” came the voice behind him. There was amusement under the quiet exhaustion.

Maruki chuckled. He must smell the cider. “I know, I’m full of surprises.”

Akira hummed with some amusement and reached to stoop and take off his shoes. He leaned too far and squatted down to keep himself from falling forward when he stumbled, holding his head in one hand.

“Ah!” Maruki started, moving around to help and stooped down as well, “Here, I’ll get your shoes.” He was weakly swatted away by Akira, who looked frustrated and picked at his laces with one hand, the other keeping him up right. Maruki chuckled, “I suppose there isn’t a time where you won’t be stubborn.” He moved the second pair of slippers he’d grabbed from his closet and put them in front of the boy as he removed one shoe. “Let me get the cider I heated up, hm?” he offered before standing.

After retrieving the mugs from the microwave, dousing them lightly with cinnamon and stirring it in this time, he brought them over to the kitchen table where Akira was sitting down at a chair, sighing with some relief as he did. Maruki placed a cup in front of him and took a chair adjacent to his guest. As Akira reached for the mug, testing it’s surface with the back of his hand, Maruki noticed the bruising on his knuckles, his wrist, and gripped his own cup.

“Kurusu-kun, who did this to you?”

He reached to pull the mug by its handle closer to him and blew on the surface before answering, “The police.”

Maruki let go of his mug as he gripped his hands. He looked at the large bruise across his cheek, “The _police?_ ”

Akira flinched a little bit, shifting in his seat, and Maruki realized he probably didn’t have as good of a handle on his own pheromones as he’d like. He rubbed at the back of his neck briefly. “Is that what they’d justify as an interrogation?” he said with heat.

After taking a gentle sip of the cider, Akira looked back at his beverage and hummed, “It’s good.”

It took him a moment to register the compliment, but Maruki shifted his feet and cleared his throat, “Thank you. You can have as much as you want.”

“Did you make it yourself?”

“I did, actually.”

“I didn’t know you could cook.”

Maruki smiled slightly, “I dabble here and there, but don’t worry, I won’t experiment with dinner.”

Akira squinted and frowned, “I’m not all that hungry, but...”

“You’re…” Maruki started before changing his wording, “I don’t know how long you’ve been in custody, but I’m pretty sure you haven’t eaten dinner. I’ll make it light, okay?”

After a moment, the boy nodded.

Maruki regarded him a moment before asking, “Is that your hint that you don’t want to talk right now and would prefer I go cook?”

Akira took another sip of cider, “They...injected me with drugs. It’s hard to concentrate and talk, but it’s gotten better for the last few hours.”

“They--?” Maruki started before stopping himself, forcing himself to be calm. Okay, relax, think this through. What would the police inject into an uncooperative suspect? “Did they call it a truth serum?”

Akira looked at the table a moment, “They said it would make me talk, so, I guess.”

Maruki nodded, “It was probably a barbiturate. Unfortunately, the only thing we can do is wait it out.” He moved to get out of his chair and Akira looked up at him as he did, “Food should help though. Are you experiencing any symptoms besides memory loss and coordination issues?”

After a moment to think, Akira shook his head.

Maruki nodded and pushed the chair back in, “Drink as much of the cider as you want. You can lay down on the futon while I make dinner. I’ll be here if you need me.”

He nodded, and just as Maruki turned to walk into the kitchen proper, he spoke up, “Um… Where’s your bathroom?”

He gestured across the open living room to the door on the left wall a few feet from the mounted television. “There, if you need it.”

Akira stood and walked to it, taking it slow so he didn’t stumble on the way there. Once his hand was on the doorknob, Maruki turned to the kitchen to start making dinner.

\---

Akira did feel more clear-headed after sleeping for a little while on the futon, but he still felt groggy, and he couldn’t tell at this point if it was from the drugs or his exhaustion from everything that had happened.

It was dark by the time dinner was served, and Maruki had been honest about the kind of food he’d make for him. Miso soup, rice, and chicken, all easy on the stomach.

Neither of them spoke until their plates were cleaned, and considering Maruki’s ever present curiosity, Akira was certain that he was just holding himself back for his sake. He smiled a little to himself before covering it with his cup, draining the rest of the cider he’d made for him.

“Would you like more?”

He shook his head and Maruki took their plates. He moved in his seat, “I can clean--”

“No no, please, you need to rest as much as you can, I’ll get it.”

He was denied firmly but with a smile, so he relaxed back in his chair. He reached to touch against the glands on his neck. They felt a little sore, both sides of his neck, and he could smell himself a little bit. Maybe...that was a side effect of the drug too.

After a few minutes Maruki sat back down at the table with a glass of water and placed it in front of him. “Would it...be all right if I asked some questions?” he asked, hesitant.

Akira nodded, steeling himself.

“Could you tell me what happened? How you got captured?”

He grimaced at that. He’d just spent a long time being interrogated by Niijima about the same thing. He didn’t really want to go through that again.

“If you don’t want to, you can say no,” Maruki added quickly, likely reacting to his expression.

“It’s just… Niijima-san was the prosecutor for the Phantom Thieves case, so…”

The man nodded, “Of course, so you’ve already had to talk about everything in detail.” He stopped and frowned, “She didn’t have anything to do with…?”

Akira immediately shook his head, his dark curls shifting over his face. “No, she didn’t hurt me. She was appalled when she came in to question me.”

The man sighed and leaned a bit on to the table, propping his elbow up on the surface, “I suppose you managed to convince her of your innocence then?”

Akira pinched his brow and glanced to the side a moment, “Not my innocence, but that there is something more going on that she needs to worry about.”

Maruki’s strain in not asking what that was was evident in his posture and Akira bit back an amused smile.

“With the police? Or the investigation?”

“Yes.”

Maruki shifted in his seat, his elbow turning to let his hand dangle off the edge of the table. His eyebrows were flat over the tops of his eyes as he spoke, “If they’re going to be looking for you…”

“They already have been, and Niijima-san said that she would do her best to keep them from going after Sojiro or the cafe. It will probably take them some time to realize I’m not dead, but the corruption in the police… Niijima-san said she thinks she can use that to stall them,” Akira said, reaching to touch the glass of water, spinning it a little bit along the surface of the table rather than picking it up to drink.

“I see.” His answer was a little tight and that had Akira turning his eyes back to him, but Maruki sighed, his stiff shoulders sagging a bit, “Well, if you trust her, then so will I. You’ll just have to bear with my accommodations for a little while.”

“I don’t mind. I told her to bring me here.”

Maruki straightened up a bit, his skin flushing a bit, “I’m...glad you trust me to protect you. Thank you.”

The flush was contagious and Akira squirmed a little in his own seat, bringing his hand back to himself. “O-of course.”

Maruki glanced at the hand Akira withdrew and then seemed to think for a moment. He relaxed a bit in his chair, reaching up to fix some hair behind is ear, combing his fingers along that side of his head, “How long do you need to stay before you think it’s safe to leave? Isn’t it going to be more dangerous when you go back to the cafe regardless, since they think you’re dead now?”

Akira frowned. The truth was that he only vaguely remembered telling Sae to go to Maruki’s instead, since he was in and out of consciousness in the back seat of the car for most of the drive. When she mentioned taking him to Sojiro’s house, all he could think in a panic was that they’d be in danger around him, and that they couldn’t protect him, so it was a bad place to be. Maruki was safe, they didn’t know about him or care, he could go there. Maruki would protect him.

He reached to fidget with the bangs in the middle of his face, “I...didn’t feel safe going back there yet. They know I live there, and I think we were spotted by someone when we left, so...”

Maruki smiled reassuringly, waving his hand to signal for him not to worry. “Sorry I didn’t mean to make it seem like I didn’t want you here. You can stay as long as you want, okay?” At an answering nod, Maruki glanced at the digital clock on his oven. “Well… I won’t push you for more answers.” He turned to look back at him. “Did you want to shower? I can get you some clothes to wear,” he suggested, adjusting his glasses.

Akira let his hand fall from his hair and seeing Maruki adjust his glasses made him suddenly realize he didn’t have his. He lost them during the interrogation at some point and never got them back, maybe? Not like he needed them to see, but, most people at school didn’t know that, and they were to help him blend in anyway. He could get another pair if he had to but, could that be used as evidence of his escape if it was at the interrogation building…?

After realizing he hadn’t answered, he quickly sat up and said, “Yeah, sure.”

That earned him a nod and a smile as Maruki stood from his chair and pushed it in. “Okay. You go ahead and I’ll put something outside for you.” He looked at Akira’s face a moment and added, “Should I get the first aid? It looks like you’re mostly bruised, but…”

Akira moved to stand, his balance better now that he had a little rest and some food in him. “It’s probably fine.”

“Okay, but let me know if it isn’t.”

He nodded and made his way to the bathroom, shedding his academy jacket as he did.

Akira looked at the mirror for the second time since the interrogation after he closed the door to the bath section of Maruki’s bathroom behind him. Finger marks around his neck where they’d held him down, bruise on his cheek from when they’d hit him hard enough to knock him out of the chair. It still ached every time he spoke or squinted, and he imagined it probably would still tomorrow. Maybe even worse. There was a stark, small bruise under the eye on the other side of his face and a bit of a mark near the corner of his mouth. At least...well, at least it was over now. The lighting wasn’t particularly harsh in the room, it was actually kind of nice, like it was more meant to illuminate and let you relax rather than be as bright and obtrusive as possible, shining a spotlight on every little flaw and imperfection. He fingered at the collar of his turtleneck, the Shujin Academy arrow logo stitched on the side where he ran his thumb. On the bend of the polyester blend above it was a little bit of blood. He slipped his fingers under the collar to take hold of the shirt and pull it up and over his head.

The white fabric had obscured bruises he’d only felt until now, the dark red and purple blotches blooming ugly over his pale skin. He ran his fingers over one near his ribs where he was sure he’d probably been kicked and turned to see a smattering of them on his back. He pressed against one and winced, skimming his fingertips over the rest before letting it fall, turning the rest of the way around to look. Some of the bruises were small, but the largest ones were clustered along his left side. He hadn’t noticed that before. Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long for them to go away, though he would probably be laying low for a good while, so it wasn’t as if he’d be trying to deal with a heist any time soon.

He ran his hand through his hair, persing his mouth at the feeling of dried sweat before moving on to strip the rest of the way. He sighed looking at the bruise on his thigh from being stomped on, when the interrogator threatened to remove it if he didn’t sign the confession form. No wonder standing hurt.

He put his clothes into a pile and hesitated as he picked them up. Was he supposed to leave them outside the door for Maruki to get? Hopefully he had a laundromat nearby, or a unit in his apartment if he was particularly lucky. Well, it wouldn’t hurt. He did say he’d bring him a change of clothes.

His dirty clothes in one arm pressed against his chest, Akira reached with his other hand to open the door and peek out, the doorway pointed directly down the short hall to the bathroom’s exit. He glanced toward the sink and toilet and, seeing that the coast was clear, he put his clothes out by the door and shut it again.

After starting the water, he glanced around the room again. The tiling along the floor was a slate-like stone that he was sure wasn’t nearly that nice, but it felt nice under his feet. The imperfect rise and ridges of each tile made it feel almost like a bathhouse. Most of the wall was flat and neutral, the wall around the bath and shower combination a plain off-white square tiling. All of it was clean and didn’t particularly smell like anything beyond cleaning products. There was a rail with towels, room enough for two but only one there and a washcloth. Something inside him itched and some strange vulnerability he didn’t have before came over him as he glanced at the products lining the edge of the bath: he was naked in Takuto Maruki’s apartment. He immediately clamped his hands over his neck, embarrassed that the thought made him release a burst of pheromones, even if Maruki would never know it. 

The water was nearly to where he wanted it, so Akira dropped his hands from his neck and sighed, reaching to turn the faucet off and step in. The heat was welcome but also hurt, the sharp contrast between the cool tile on his feet and enduring the cold of that underground facility making the hot water pleasant but a bit of a shock. Slowly, very slowly, he put his hand to the wall and eased down, grabbing the side as soon as he could reach it with his other hand and sitting down completely in the water. The heat wrapped around him like a soothing blanket and his muscles immediately started to loosen and relax.

Akira let his eyes fall shut as he laid down in the tub for a moment. It wasn’t really all that embarrassing, if he was being honest with himself, that he would react that way. He just...knew that it would make Maruki uncomfortable. The man had been clear to him about his ex-fiance and what happened to her, the trauma that stirred him to start his current research in earnest in the first place. And he remembered the “I’m not ready for something like that” he’d mentioned to Shibusawa when the conversation had turned in that direction at the buffet that one time. And that didn’t even touch on how much younger he was than Maruki. Truthfully, Akira didn’t have any illusions about the situation. He’d been attracted to Maruki since the first moment he saw him walk up on stage to introduce himself to the school and subsequently smack his forehead on the face of the microphone. The memory brought a small smile and chuckle to his lips. When they talked for the first time in the nurse’s office, it had been so long since he’d really felt _seen_ by someone… He was bound to fall for him, really.

Akira shifted down and let his head fall underwater, submerging him almost entirely aside from his knees, since the tub wasn’t long enough for his entire body, and stayed like that a few seconds before sitting back up and breaking the water. He wiped the water from his eyes and looked at the bottles huddled in the corner against the tile wall before reaching for the shampoo. It was a brand he saw all the time and never thought twice about. Flipping open the cap, he sniffed and sighed, immediately recognizing the scent as something he’d associate with Maruki. It mixed well with his pheromone scent, which, now that he’d been in his apartment for a little bit and laid down on his couch, he could specify. It was like burning wood surrounded by snow, sweet heat with an edge of wet smoke. He shifted his knees together and groaned, pressing his forehead against the square label on the bottle. He was going to smell like him… The clothes he’d give him to wear probably would too...

After a moment he sat up and shook his head, mentally chastising himself. No, stop, you’re being creepy, Kurusu. Get it together. Setting his mind to task, he squirted some of the gel on to his hand and got to work washing the grime out of his hair and off of his body. It’ll be a little uncomfortable being able to smell Maruki all over him and around him...but...not in a bad way, which was part of the problem. Maruki was an alpha, even if his mannerisms and personality didn’t really seem to give off that impression. He was almost a model alpha in how he respected everyone’s space, never released his own pheromones for virtually any reason he could control, which was part of the reason why Akira couldn’t really describe it until now, and never asserted himself over omegas. Considering how alphas Akira’s own age tended to act, assertive and loud and wrapped up in hormones, Maruki almost consequently felt even _safer_ by comparison. It was a good thing Maruki wasn’t anything like Kamoshida, a man who barely pretended to be nice and took advantage of all of the students he could as a result of the trust his peers put into him. It was almost a blessing that Kamoshida wasn’t an alpha, though that lack of synaptic control didn’t dampen his hold over what felt like the entire school before they ousted him.

Akira set his teeth together, glaring into the middle distance as he drew his dark curls covered in suds back over his scalp. Come to think of it...he was lucky none of the police officers were alphas as well. If they had commanded him to tell them the truth, he wasn’t sure how long he could have resisted. Then their entire plan on getting out would have been for naught.

He closed his eyes then leaned back, submerging himself again in the water, determined to wipe as much of that experience off of his body as he could. He’d leave that here in the bath, let it go down the drain, the only part remaining that he couldn’t wash off being his bruises.

When he emerged from the bath, newly clean, he noticed Maruki’s towel again and hesitated once more. He stared at it a little too long, contemplating, before deciding that he would certainly give him his own towel and that whatever excuse he was half formulating to bury his face in it was a bad one. Forcing his feet to move, inwardly irritated that he even considered using it, he opened the door to the outer bathroom, a fluffy, folded up towel resting where his dirty clothes were, and a stack of clean clothes sitting beside it. He took the towel and quickly dried himself off, scrubbing it over his hair, knowing it would make it an unseemly mass on his head, but his frustration with his wandering uncouth thoughts and impulses were starting to get to him. He was better than this, he told himself as he reached to take the shirt off the top of the stack, a white long-sleeved shirt, and pulled it on, letting the towel drop to the floor. It was well worn cotton and soft in the only way a shirt that has been worn and laundered over and over can feel. He drew his hand over his chest, rubbing the fabric against his skin. It was nice. Reaching down again, he realized that there was a pair of boxers along with the drawstring flannel pants. His hand stopped half way down and he stared a moment. Were they...were they _his_? Well, they had to be, right? Those weren’t the ones he’d dropped off before getting into the shower...so...they had to be…

The underwear was in his hand and nearly to his face when he snapped out of his thoughts and he gripped them in his fist. _Shit!_ He managed to stop himself from throwing it on impulse and let his hand hang instead, using his free hand to rub roughly over his face. What was _wrong_ with him? This was… He wasn’t acting like himself! Was this...some sort of withdrawal messing with his hormones?

He sighed, pressing briefly against his eyes. He relaxed his fist and flapped out the boxers, holding on to the waist band as he did. He took it in his other hand and stepped in, pulling it up. It was a little big on him, and to his chagrin the impulse to pull them off immediately and confirm rose back in him again. Even worse, the idea of wearing his clothes against his skin was…

“No,” he said aloud this time, reaching for the pants on the floor. The last thing he needed was to get wet while he was here, wearing his clothes. Dutifully ignoring that just the thought occurring to him alone nearly made it happen. He pulled the pants on and tied the string around his waist as tightly as he could manage it. He pressed his foot into the towel and slid it back into the room he bathed in, sliding it over the water drops he could see that he’d left on his way to the door before hanging it up beside Maruki’s. Not standing there long enough to even consider lingering, Akira turned and exited the bathroom entirely, shutting the lights off as he went.

The tv was on in the living room, playing some commercial as Maruki sat on the sofa, which was facing where Akira had just come out of. He was reading something on his tablet, the glare on the screen reflecting off his glasses and obscuring his eyes. Akira took the opportunity to look at him a moment, his hand still on the knob for the door which he hadn’t clicked shut. He was wearing a similar white shirt to the one he’d been given, probably from the same package and worn a similar amount, and drawstring pants as well, though they were a dull purple color with a pattern on them that he couldn’t really make out. He forced his tongue down from the roof of his mouth and closed the door shut, reaching up to run his fingers through his wet hair, pulling his bangs from his face.

“Anything interesting?” he asked, since Maruki was so engrossed in what he was looking at that he hadn’t noticed the door open and close.

Maruki looked up quickly at his question, the glare shifting off his lenses so he could see his eyes. He looked at him for a few long seconds before immediately shifting in his seat and stuttering, “U-um--oh! Sorry, I didn’t hear you come out.”

Akira lifted his hand so his hair could fall back into place and tried to fix it how he wanted as he walked over. Maruki moved down to give him room and he sat down beside him. He touched his chest again, feeling the fabric of the shirt and said, “Thanks, for the clothes.”

“Sure, of course,” Maruki said, getting his bearings as he turned his tablet screen off, “I’m just glad they fit you. We’re similar in height, but you’re so thin, so…”

“Yeah,” Akira replied a little awkwardly.

After a few moments of silence between them, marred only by the commercial playing, Maruki put his tablet on the coffee table and pulled a first aid kit over and took it in hand. He adjusted his glasses and smiled, “Let’s...do something about those bruises.”

The boy cleared his throat, “I...they’ll be fine.” Truthfully he really _really_ wanted Maruki to touch him, and it was because of that that he really shouldn’t let him do it.

Akira, however, wasn’t the only stubborn person in the apartment. Maruki opened the kit and took out a small bottle of cream with handwriting over it rather than a label. “It won’t hurt or take much time,” he assured, popping the cap.

He exhaled lightly through his nose and let himself settle a bit on the cushion, turning to face Maruki a little better since he was so intent on helping. “What is that?”

“It’s a lotion that has different additives to help heal and clear away bruising. I can be a bit clumsy, so I’ve always had some around for a very long time, just in case I need it,” he explains, dabbing a bit on his finger before turning to look at him, his expression all warmth and honesty. Akira’s frown tensed just a bit before he turned his head slightly so the largest bruise was easier for Maruki to see.

He closed his eyes as he felt the cool lotion against his cheek, holding back a wince. It did ache, even if most of his concern was with his misbehaving body’s reaction to Maruki touching his skin. They’d only shaken hands once, so this was a much more...intimate exchange than that. He swallowed and tried to hold back his pheromones at the thought, feeling Maruki’s fingers very gently cover the bruise with lotion.

“It doesn’t hurt too much, does it?”

Akira opened his eyes and blinked at Maruki’s soft tone though he didn’t look at him and answered, “N-no, it’s fine.”

The touch receded and he looked at Maruki, who held the bottle but didn’t raise it to dispense more. “I’m not making you uncomfortable am I?”

Alarm breached across Akira’s face and he shook his head, “No! No, you’re not.”

Maruki’s shoulders eased a little but his tight smile showed he wasn’t yet convinced, “Really?”

“Yes,” he reaffirmed. Of course he couldn’t tell him he _wanted_ this. “It’s...nice, really.”

He was regarded with a bit of skepticism for a moment before the tight expression unwound and Maruki lifted the bottle again. “Alright. I normally trust you to be frank with me, but I can’t help but feel like you’re not telling me something.”

 _Of course I’m not! I nearly shoved my face into your used towel earlier!_ Akira thought but turned to face him head on. “There’s...just a lot on my mind,” he offered. It definitely wasn’t a lie.

Maruki hummed and reached to the other side of Akira’s face. Assuming he meant to touch the bruise under his eye, Akira looked up. He was right, his cheek twitching just a little as he resisted scrunching the area up when he felt pressure on the bruise.

“I can certainly imagine,” Maruki said, “It was...a real shock when the news said you’d been arrested. I was still processing that when they said you’d-- … that you’d died.”

He took his hand away, got more lotion, just a tiny amount, and reached for Akira’s chin. He put his thumb on the bottom of his chin and reached to touch the mark at the corner of his mouth and Akira tried to loosen the grip of his teeth and ease the tension there. The tiny amount of effort it would take to imagine Maruki grasping his chin for another reason felt nearly insurmountable, but he managed to banish it. The touch was brief and Maruki retracted his hand to get more ointment, glancing at Akira’s neck.

“What did they say? On the news,” Akira asked, now more wary about Maruki’s hands being on his neck and their proximity to his glands. What if he touched one by accident? Could he possibly be simultaneously so lucky and unlucky?

Maruki didn’t answer at first, tapping his index finger to the opening of the bottle before up-ending it and squeezing more. Akira glanced at him before he saw Maruki raise his hand to touch him and tilted his chin up and his head to the side. Out of the corner of his eye Maruki hesitated for a moment, but after a couple seconds he felt the coolness of the lotion spread over his neck, smoothing over the column of his throat and along the side. Did it look worse than he thought it did? Or...or could he smell him? That was a bit of a dumb question, of course he could. He felt a weakness in his chest and concentrated on breathing steadily to counter it. His neck was vulnerable, and he was exposing it, after all. To an alpha. To Maruki. He clenched his jaw again.

[ ](https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/84442209)

“They mentioned your...arrest record,” Maruki finally started to answer and Akira had forgotten he hadn’t even answered the question. The stripes of cool lotion moved down to cover the three branching blotches left there. Akira tried not to shudder. “And speculated on if it had to do with you being a Phantom Thief.”

Akira huffed a chuckle and it released more of the tension in him than he thought it would. Soon after the touch against his sensitive skin receded. He lowered his head back to normal and rolled it, a quiet crack relieving some of the stiffness in his neck.

Maruki continued, “They announced your suicide not long after I turned the television on, so if they speculated or said anything else, I didn’t hear it.” He gestured to his hands.

Akira pushed his sleeves up a bit on his forearms and lifted one of his hands. Maruki furrowed his eyebrows as he looked over the bruising left from the handcuffs. The scent of wood and smoke reached Akira and he realized it was his pheromones. His stomach felt hot and his head felt a little weird. Like buzzing in the back of his mind.

“I can’t believe they’d do this to you,” Maruki muttered gravely. “No matter who they were convinced you were.”

“I have a record, remember? And I’m the leader of a group they’ve wanted gone for over six months now,” Akira said, blinking a few times to clear the fuzz away in his head, watching Maruki gently rub the lotion over the top of his wrist in little circles.

“That doesn’t excuse _this_ ,” Maruki insisted, pressing on an unblemished part of his wrist and pulling a little to spread and emphasize the bruise. He shook his head, reaching to tap at the center of his glasses with his knuckle and push them back up his nose before going back to rubbing in the medicine. “Nothing does. They were just doing whatever they wanted because they had the power to do so.”

Akira frowned as his wrist was flipped over to rub along the underside. “What else is new?” he muttered, his would-be medic hesitating in his treatment when he did but resuming and finishing his wrist. Akira raised his other hand, putting the other one back in his lap, and started the process again.

Maruki finished his wrist in silence and glanced at his face as Akira looked over his hands. “Did you have any others?”

Akira cleared his throat, torn between feeling awkward and exposed in a bad way and wanting to feel exposed in a good way. “Yeah,” he admitted, fiddling with the end of his shirt. “There’s...one on my back I can’t reach.”

He received a nod and turned in his seat so he was facing away and hiked his shirt up on his left side, his left arm bent and leaning against the back of the couch while the other crossed over his chest to hold it up. A prickle ran up his neck and he realized after a moment that it was because he was turning his back and willingly showing a soft vulnerable spot on his body to an alpha, again. His instincts were harder to ignore when he didn’t have anything specific and urgent to distract himself.

He flinched a little when the cold lotion came in contact with his back and the touch immediately left.

“Sorry, I should have warned you.” came Maruki’s voice, self-admonishing and a little strained.

“It’s fine,” he reassured and the touch came back. It was a little firmer than on his wrists, but not by much, though there was something else a little weird about it. Less precise or...steady? Even still...he liked this...far more than he should have, and that made him feel a little guilty. He was indulging in this for reasons outside of what Maruki thought, and that was just...gross of him, wasn’t it? He should do the rest himself.

“Alright,” announced Maruki as he pulled his hand away and Akira let the shirt drop and turned back to him. He extended his open hand to Maruki and, when he realized what he wanted, he closed the lid and handed it to him.

“You’ll get the rest?” he asked and Akira nodded, scooting a little so he could lean against the arm rest and pulled his knee up. The bruise on his thigh was the worst one aside from his face, so he should do that. He hiked the pant leg up so it bunched up against the bend where his leg met his hip and he heard Maruki wince.

“No wonder you were so unsteady on your feet…”

Akira smeared some of the lotion over his palm and rubbed it over that section of his leg, narrowing his eyes a little at the pain. “I’m already walking okay now, so it just hurts normally.”

“I...suppose…” Maruki muttered.

Finishing that up, Akira pulled the pant leg back to how it was supposed to be and adjusted his posture before pulling his shirt up to get to the marks on his left side.

Maruki moved his head like he meant to look away, his eyes on the exposed torso and bruises a moment before finally turning completely to look back at the television, rubbing whatever remaining lotion on his fingers into his hands.

Akira tucked the fabric under his chin and used his hands to rub the lotion into his bruising on his side, moving up from the bend at his hip up his ribcage. He realized his hands were shaking a little and the buzz at the back of his head was back again and worse than before. He squinted as he moved to the last one closest to his chest, shifting his arm away from his side to let more fabric bunch towards his armpit so he could get to it. 

Once he was satisfied he clipped the lid shut on the bottle and let his shirt fall back down, adjusting it with his free hand. He touched against the bruise on his face and realized it did actually hurt less as he sat back up.

Maruki cleared his throat and asked, “Feel better?”

Akira nodded, offering him the bottle, which he took. He looked a little flustered as he put it back and reached for a large rectangular bandage. Wait he’d really just...done that right in front of him, _facing_ him, hadn’t he? He immediately reached to press his hand over the side of his neck, embarrassed.

“If you’re feeling like staying up for a little bit, I suggest we put this bandage on the large one on your cheek,” Maruki suggested, drawing Akira’s attention from staring into his own lap and yelling at himself, “You can hold some ice to it for a little bit.”

That sounded fine. Akira nodded and let his hand drop from his neck and straightened up. Maruki peeled the paper from the back of the bandage and very gently placed it on his cheek with both hands. “There,” he said, crumpling the wrapping and backing of the bandage together in his fist.

Akira reached up to make sure it was completely stuck to his face as Maruki closed the first aid. “I’ll get you some ice.” Akira sat back like he normally would on the couch, pulling his legs to set cross-legged in his seat and let Maruki pass, dutifully pulling his eyes away from him as he did.

He glanced at the tv and heard a loud, weird sounding buzz from the coffee table and looked to spot where it was coming from. Oh, he realized what it was when he saw the grey industrial print casing. His phone.

Hearing Maruki mess with the ice maker, he picked it up to look over his messages. A few in his group chat with the other members of the Phantom Thieves, and two from his guardian. He pulled up Sojiro’s message first.

**Sojiro:** Hey. Niijima-san said you’re with your counselor, that one that’s stopped by the cafe before, right? I appreciate your concern, but you know I can hide you away just fine. I mean, you all didn’t know about Futaba, remember?

Akira rolled his eyes. He had a point, but…that wasn’t entirely on him. His daughter was the one hiding herself in her room. Besides, they risk enough for him.

**Sojiro:** Anyway, you know what you’re doing, and he seemed like a nice person when I talked to him. If you trust him, so do I. I’ll call you tomorrow, so get some rest.

Akira sighed with relief and sent a quick text back to acknowledge that he was okay and they’d talk tomorrow. Even if they had a rocky start, he was glad their relationship had improved as much as it had since April. All of this would be a lot harder if he’d still have to lie to him about what was going on, and the guilt at putting him in danger without his knowledge had always been a problem too. Thankfully, that was one weight off his conscience.

He backed out of the text string and pulled up the group chat, scrolling through the messages to look over them.

“Everyone okay?”

A washcloth wrapped around a handful of ice and rubberbanded to keep it all inside appeared in front of him when he looked up. He reached out and took it as Maruki moved between him and the coffee table again to sit back down in his seat. He nodded and added, “Yeah,” to answer him as he put the ice gently to his face and glanced back down at his phone to finish reading. Most of it was talking amongst themselves, nothing specific, until Futaba told them that he was at Maruki’s place, and safe, with Makoto confirming, liking hearing so from her sister Sae. The rest were telling him to rest, hoping he was okay, and that they’d see him soon. He sent off a quick text affirming that he was okay and they’d meet soon. It didn’t take long for more messages to pop in, but luckily they all seemed to respect that he was tired and didn’t try to initiate any conversation.

He closed out of the app and set his phone on the armrest beside him, sliding his feet down and back onto the rug under the futon and looking at the television. They were doing a summary round of news that had broken during the day and he fidgeted his free hand as each story came up, which he had a pen or something to mess with. Then the Phantom Thief Logo popped up on screen and he actually relaxed a little as the caster turned to a new camera.

“The leader of the Phantom Thieves was arrested and taken into police custody earlier today. He was a 17 year old with a previous record, and was serving out his appointed probation after being relocated from his hometown. As the police were in between interrogations, he was found dead via suicide in his cell. The police have told us that they intend to continue the investigation to find the other members, and assure the public that this was just the beginning of the end for the criminal gang that has been terrorizing Tokyo since May.”

And with that, they moved on to the next story.

“Can you at least tell me how you can pass off being dead without a body?” Maruki asked, clearly not longer able to contain that question in particular.

Akira huffed an amused sound, looking down at his bruised wrists and scuffed knuckles and fingers. “Don’t need one if the coroner will fake a report anyway.” His vision suddenly blurred a little, the buzzing that was bothering him growing a bit harder to ignore and he reached up to rub at his eyes.

“How are your side-effects?” Maruki asked, turning the television down, less interested in curiosities than helping him.

Akira shook his head, “I don’t know.”

Maruki moved and Akira felt the center cushion depress under his weight. “Do you have a headache?” His voice was closer. So was his scent.

Trying not to flinch, Akira let his hand drop and blinked his eyes a few times. “It’s like...buzzing in my head.”

“Buzzing…” Maruki murmured, his voice a little distant as he considered. “You look flushed, too. Here--” he said. Akira saw movement and immediately felt Maruki’s hand press against his forehead. He closed his eyes briefly before opening them again, trying to resist leaning into it and looked at Maruki. He had his other hand against his own forehead, his dark eyes off to the side as he compared the two. The light from the television caught on the edge of his right eye, illuminating the deep brown into something nearly resembling a deep golden amber or tiger’s eye before he moved his line of sight and retracted his hand. Akira blinked and glanced at his face.

“You’re running a little hot. You shouldn’t have a fever from the drugs,” he started, fidgeting with the hand that had touched him.

A fever, head fog, difficult to control pheromones, intrusive sexual urges and thoughts, heightened reaction to an alpha...

Akira hoped he put the pieces together before Maruki did and he shifted in his seat, moving the ice pack from his face. “Maybe if I go to bed, I’ll feel better.” He should probably be asking to go to a heat house, a place where he can wait out his heat in safety with attendants and supplies, but there was no way he was going to leave. He had far too many reasons to stay than to leave, not the least of all because...he has an alpha right--

He stopped himself and stood, realizing Maruki was in the middle of saying something and he hadn’t heard it. Maybe he wasn’t in heat and it was just the combination of everything that’s happened and being around the man he had a dumb crush on. That could definitely be a possibility, right? He’d never been this tired and around someone like this, and going to spend the night here, and it was just...teenage hormones or whatever. He started, “Sorry I was just thinking. What...did you say?”

Maruki hesitated, looking a little wary, “Kurusu-kun, I don’t want to be intrusive, but when was the last time you had a heat cycle?”

Panic gripped his guts a moment and he forced himself to look as laid back as possible, putting his hands in his pockets. “September...I think.” _Dammit_ why didn’t he lie?

Maruki took a breath, looking a little serious, “If you think this is the start, we need to--” but he stopped when Akira shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. He sighed, “Kurusu-kun.”

“This feels different from a heat,” he told him, and it was at least a little bit correct, but Maruki didn’t seem to buy it and he stood himself. Akira’s arms only tightened against his chest.

“If you’re in heat you know you can’t stay here with me,” he said, his eyebrows angled as he leveled a serious gaze at him. The contrast between it and his easy going, typical expression was always so stark.

“I can’t go to a heat house either,” Akira told him, trying to be as matter-of-fact as possible. “What will happen if someone reports me, or an officer happens to recognize me?” He forced himself to uncross his arms and slide them back into his pockets. “I just need some sleep.”

Maruki’s jaw was set and he scrutinized Akira’s expression. The sound of the television was the only noise in the apartment, some whacky commercial completely unfitting for the tension in the room. He huffed a breath and glanced away, his expression slowly starting to ease.

“If...you notice more symptoms, please be honest with me and tell me,” he said. Akira frowned a little, so he added, “I understand that going to a heat house is unsafe. They’re government run and they have security, and you’ll be there for days if this is a heat. So...just, tell me, alright? We’ll...figure something out.”

Akira willed his brain as much as he could to keep what he wanted “figure something out” to mean completely out of his imagination and when Maruki added, “Promise me?” he nodded, pulling his hand out of his pocket to fidget with his bangs. “Deal.”

Maruki chuckled, “Alright. A deal.”

Akira smiled a little and dropped his hand.

“I’ll take the futon tonight,” Maruki said, moving on from the topic and gesturing to the furniture they’d been sitting on. “You can sleep in my bed.”

Excitement jolted through Akira at the idea of sleeping in Maruki’s bed but he managed a hopefully convincing, “No I shouldn’t take your bed.”

“You’re my guest, I insist,” Maruki objected, smiling easily, all the tension gone from his expression.

Akira nodded, realizing this wouldn’t be a point he could argue, not that he really wanted to anyway.

“Go wash up. There’s a new toothbrush on the sink you can use,” he added and Akira complied, this time only walking a little slower to the bathroom than he normally would.

Once he was finished, he exited the bathroom and he heard the refrigerator shut in the kitchen. He waited a few moments for Maruki to come back around, a glass of water in his hand. “You probably realized, but this is the bedroom here,” he said, gesturing to the only remaining room in the apartment Akira hadn’t been to. There was an open entryway to it, though all he had really noticed was a peek of a desk chair beyond the closet doors.

He padded after him, the hardwood under his bare feet not so bad when the rug ended, and looked about as Maruki turned the light on. It was the only room with a window, the glass door to the balcony at the end of the kitchen notwithstanding, and otherwise it was pretty bare. A desk in the little area after the long closet, and queen sized bed on the right side. He blinked at the bed, half expecting him to have a sleeping pad despite the room not having tatami flooring.

“I’ll turn the television off so you can sleep,” Maruki told him as he moved files and papers out of the way on his desk and set the water down there before shifting to adjust the blinds on the window and pull the curtains.

“If you’re watching it, I don’t mind,” he told him, glancing at the shelves in the corner opposite the desk. There were books lining the shelves, some papers sticking out of some of them and others with a barely broken in spine. A digital clock was wedged in an opening and a little crooked. When Akira followed the angle of its face, it matched up with the desk.

“Are you used to the noise when you sleep?”

“My...mother is loud when she watches tv,” he admitted, turning back to him and shrugged. “Despite how hard she tries to not be. The attic at Le Blanc took a lot of time getting used to.”

Maruki chuckled, “Ah. Well, I’ll leave it on then if it’ll make you feel more at home.”

Akira rolled his shoulders a little and rubbed at his neck briefly, his chest feeling warm and fluttery. “...thanks.”

The man smiled at him and stepped back from the window. “Do you...need anything else?”

Akira glanced at the bed. It had two pillows, a comforter. He felt a deep itch he wasn’t sure about and he shifted on his feet. “No, I’m okay.”

“Okay,” Maruki said with a nod. “Your clothes should be clean by tomorrow, and I’ll be right out here if you need me.”

Fidgeting a little with his sleeve, Akira nodded, “Thank you. For...taking care of me.”

Maruki blinked and smiled warmly, “It’s no trouble. Sleep well. Deal?”

Akira smiled back and left his sleeve alone. “Deal.”

\---

Sleep did not come easily for Akira. First was the issue that Maruki’s bed smelled so much like him that it took him a long time to calm down, completely surrounded by the smell of burning walnut, like he was sitting by a bonfire at night, wrapped in a warm coat and cowl in the middle of the woods. As relaxing as the image was, the effect it had on his body was anything but, and he knew with some chagrin that he’d have to throw the boxers in the laundry basket himself to avoid the embarrassment of Maruki handling it himself. He was half hard for a solid ten minutes as he willed himself to finally, eventually, go down, and even further than that, fall asleep.

The second problem was that he kept waking up. The first time he glanced at the alarm clock on the bookshelf was before he’d fallen asleep the first time around 22:30. Then again at 23:30. And again a little after midnight. Everytime he woke back up, he felt sticky and hot, eventually giving in and pulling his shirt off to toss on the floor. The scent in the pillow and sheets comforted him, but it was getting to the point that it felt like an itch wasn’t being scratched. It wasn’t _enough_ anymore. The static in his head was even worse, he could practically feel it at the back of his eyes. He groaned as he rolled over and looked at the clock, a harsh and cruel 01:24 gleaming back at him. He sighed, pressing his face into the pillow. He felt barely conscious, almost like when he was drugged again, but with less vertigo and dizziness. Maybe this was similar to being drunk or high…? The realization finally snuck up on him and he only somewhat registered the thought before it left him, his conscious and deliberate internal dialogue being slowly eroded away by a gnawing void of a hunger he hated feeling. Like a bottom dropping out somewhere inside of him, loosening a door to a yawning depth of nothing. He did know this.

He was in heat haze.

The living room had been quiet for the last couple times he woke up, and with what little will Akira still seemed to grasp on to, he looked at the glass of water on the desk and moved. Slowly, he sat up until he was upright, the sheet and comforter shifting and falling from his chest. He blinked and swung his legs around, squinting when the cool air hit his legs. Had he kicked the pants off too at some point? He didn’t remember doing that. He found what was probably them when he set his feet on the floor, rumpled fabric creasing under his soles, and stood. The boxers sagged a little around his hips and he reached to keep them up as he walked to the glass of water. Pulling the damp fabric against his ass was gross, but it was pushed from his mind as his eyes zeroed in on the cure for how parched his mouth felt.

Maruki was nice to have set this out for him. He took the glass and took a long drink, swallowing a few mouthfuls in a row before pulling the glass away and sighing. It was nice of him to let him sleep in his room. It was nice of him to feed him and let him bathe and shelter him like this. He was a good alpha.

He gripped the glass and put it down, a sudden tension shooting down his spine and into his groin. He gasped and covered his mouth, trying not to double over as he took a step back from the desk. The gnawing feeling of being empty was opening like a neverending chasm. An emptiness that was intolerable, he _needed_ to fill it back up.

He hissed through his teeth, shivering a little even as his nightsweats showed no intention of stopping. If...if he went back to sleep...he could ride out some of it… He could just apologize for ruining his sheets in the morning.

The image of ruining them by being fucked down into them instead of sweating it out and crying alone flashed through his mind and he shuddered. God how good that would feel… He wanted to be stretched open, used until he couldn’t feel anything but the push and pull inside him, and then plugged up shut. A pair of arms to hold him as he came over and over, a good alpha to purr him to sleep while still wrapped around their knot.

A good alpha.

He swallowed and turned to the living room, half aware of himself.

That’s right, they made a deal.

He...he was in heat...and he promised. He’d take care of him. He’d help.

Akira’s feet moved while he was lost in his thoughts and he only realized what he was doing when he was rounding the futon. Maruki’s glasses were set aside on the coffee table and he had kept the back of the futon up when he fell asleep. His face looked strange without them...but not a bad strange… He couldn’t imagine Maruki ever looking bad strange. Akira inhaled sharply when his eyes shifted slightly and he realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt and the blanket he had was mostly kicked down towards his feet. His feverish heart kicked in his chest. Holy shit, the least amount of clothes he’d ever seen on the man was just a few hours ago in pajamas. But _holy shit_ he could see his shoulders...his chest...his torso...his arms…

Akira swallowed the spit collecting in his mouth as he stared, wanting to touch him but not knowing where to touch him first, or how. Wait not he _shouldn’t_ touch him. ...right? The buzz in his brain was screaming at him. _Alpha. A good alpha. He’ll take care of you. Show him you’re a good omega. He’ll fill you up how you need if you show him you’re good._

The feeling of wedging his foot between the back of the futon and the cushion registered to him just before he lowered himself to sit on Maruki’s lap. He shivered as the wet fabric clinging to him pressed completely against his skin and he could feel the soft lump of Maruki’s cock. He was actually already a little hard, but it wasn’t enough. Not even close.

_He’s not hard for you. Alphas only get hard for good omegas. Make him hard, give him proof. Make him want you._

He gasped, shivering and sweating all at once, shifting his hips back and forth, pleasuring shooting through him as his own cock flagged under the fabric. Even just from sitting in his lap he could feel the difference, and he could feel him getting a little harder just from the pressure. He put his hands down on his lower abdomen, feeling it flex a little underneath his weight, his thumb running through the hair traveling down from his navel underneath his waistband. He let out a breath and moved his hips again, the hips under him reacting just a little, and he was so zoned into that contact between the place he wanted to be filled and the thing he wanted to be filled with that he didn’t hear Maruki wake up.


	2. Chapter 2

Sleep did not come easily for Maruki. Although he’d gone to bed earlier than usual, thanks to not wanting to bother his guest too much and wanting a bit of a break from smelling his pheromones that had all but flooded his apartment, deep sleep continued to evade him. The sweet, gingery smell of figs and a spice he couldn’t name was heady and making him antsy by the end of the night. And he needed to get the image of Akira with his head tilted to the side, exposing his neck to him out of his mind’s eye. He was embarrassed that it had triggered a deep alpha instinct in him that he’d had to pause to fight, no doubt stoked by his scent in the air. Like a lamb offering a wolf its neck, the need to sink his teeth in was...unbecoming of him, and yet was indisputably a part of him. Although he’d never really encountered an omega that smelled particularly _bad_ , unless they’d tried to pair a shampoo, soap or perfume that clashed horribly with their natural scent, Akira’s was just so…

He’d decided to go to sleep, because he felt like a weird predator, because he felt like a pervert, and hoped against hope that the stubborn look in Akira’s grey, defiant eyes when they’d discussed the possibility of his being in heat wasn’t born from him knowingly lying to him about it. That the phenomenon they both identified and dismissed was, hopefully, just a collection of circumstances that masqueraded as heat and, in actuality, they would both wake up feeling rested and refreshed. He would make breakfast, maybe Akira could do some magic with the coffee he’d bought recently, and eventually they would both go to Le Blanc to drop him off. A pleasant time despite the circumstances surrounding why he was there in the first place.

Maruki was often a fool, a witting one it turned out this time, when he felt pressure on his hips and woke up to Akira grinding down on to his lap.

[ ](https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/84531771)

“K- ...Kurus--…!” he groaned, hit immediately with the force of his desperate heat pheromones. He’d likely been breathing them in while he was asleep for the past hour or more but when he was conscious was an entirely different feeling. It had been years since he’d been near an omega in heat and he’d forgotten the power of it, especially when waking up to an omega so deep already in the cycle. He smelled so indescribably good, like a fresh meal ready to be eaten, begging to be devoured in his entirety. He held a growl in the center of his chest, squeezing his eyes shut a moment as he battled against the urge to grab him by the hips and pull him down.

Instead, he breathed through his mouth and grabbed Akira’s thigh, the one without the ugly bruise. “Kurusu!”

That stopped him, but the body of the boy was still shivering even if his rutting stopped. Maruki looked up to read his expression in time to see him bring a hand up to his face, clearly swallowing as he furrowed his brow. Was he trying to think? Could he still talk to him?

“Kurusu-kun,” he said again, this time in a normal tone.

“I…!” he tried and swallowed once more.

“Easy,” he said, trying to not seem upset and keeping his voice soft. If anything, he was upset, but at himself only. He should have been more responsible about this.

A shudder went through Akira and the feeling of it shifting his body over his cock made Maruki take a breath through his teeth.

“I...I’m in heat,” Akira said, his breathing shallow and sounding like he was trying to sound far more put together than he was.

“I can see that,” Maruki agreed. He glanced down and noticed Akira’s hard on before snapping his eyes back up.

Akira swallowed, “... I promised to tell you, but… Our deal… I didn’t mean--!”

Maruki shushed him and brought his hand down from the futon where he’d grabbed the back in surprise, anchoring himself up a little bit with his elbow. “It’s okay. You’re not in your right mind right now.”

He didn’t say anything immediately, his hand still planted on Maruki’s stomach as he shivered in his lap. His knees shifted to press against either side of him, one under his ribcage and the other higher up.

Maruki cleared his throat. “Okay, let’s--”

He shifted over his lap again and Maruki pressed his ass against the futon cushion rather than grind up against him. Years of not having to deal with this has really made him rusty at it, and god if it was almost any other omega, it wouldn’t be half as difficult as this.

Repeating his age over and over again in his head, Maruki moved again to touch Akira’s knee to get him to loosen up. “Let’s get you back to bed.”

It took a few moments of breathy silence, but his legs finally loosened and he moved with some difficulty, standing to retrieve his caught foot and Maruki held his breath in the time between him getting off of his lap and bringing his leg back to himself, lest he fill his lungs and brain with the scent of his slick and risk losing his tenuous hold on his self-control. He let it go as Akira stood by the end of the futon, staring at Maruki. Trying his best to ignore the shame he felt at how obvious his erection was, he sat up and turned, taking his glasses from the coffee table.

“Maruki-san.”

He put his glasses on and stood, looking over at Akira. The too-big boxers were barely hanging on to his hips and he swallowed thickly, looking at his face. His gray eyes were heavily lidded as he looked back at him and reached belatedly to pull at the waistband of his boxers, thankfully up, although that really just brought further attention to how hard he was.

“You’re...going to help me?”

That was a trap and it took a second for Maruki to filter the right answer out instead of blurting out the wrong one even still, “I have something that can help.” At Akira’s, probably admittedly not deliberate, glanced down to his crotch and back up, Maruki frowned, “No, something else.”

Akira’s mixture of disappointment and curiosity was clear, and it was a little bizarre. It was almost like he was dealing with a different person. He knew the stereotype that some omegas acted very differently during heat, but that wasn’t really the case in his experience. Then again...sometimes he wondered if he ever really even knew Akira at all. This wasn’t exactly the way that he wanted to get to know the real him, if that was truly the case.

With a small amount of dread, he walked back to the bedroom, the afflicted omega following close behind him. First, partially to stall but also because it would ease Akira, Maruki opened the double door closet and pulled out a stack of compressed storage bags from behind a set of luggage. He broke the seal on them one by one and they started to expand to normal size.

Akira stooped down to look at the bags as they started to grow and realized what they were.

“Here, take these pillows. I’ll get you another blanket or two. It won’t be a big nest, but--” Maruki started, but was cut off by Akira’s expression, which was something between moved and happy as he stared at the growing white balls of covered fluff, and it stopped his words in their tracks.

He collected himself after a moment, turning back to them. “I’m...nothing if not prepared,” he tried, his voice softer, unzipping the bags. Akira’s expression waned a little and then he looked conflicted as he looked down at the pillows.

Marukis’ mouth pressed into a line as he focused his attention back on the task at hand and removed the first pillow from its bag, putting it to the side. It made sense that he’d have nesting materials, and…the other things he’d let Akira use after he built his nest. Rumi was an omega, and he had to help her with her heats plenty of times. He just...couldn’t bring himself to get rid of the investment, despite having walked out of her life years ago so she could be happy again.

Akira seemed to have, most likely, realized this, and took the pillows when they were finally released from their prisons. He put his face against the stack in his hands and made a face when he withdrew it. “Plastic…” he muttered and the pout in his voice completely pulled Maruki from his path down into negative nostalgia and self-pity back to the present and he laughed a little. He stood back up and reached high up into the storage compartment, pulled one box down, then a second one and opened it up to reveal a variety of blankets and throws. “Take what you want.”

Seeing the blankets, but his arms already full, Akira immediately turned to go back to the bed, setting a pillow on top of the blanket box and dragging the plastic bin with him over to it so he could get started. Maruki smiled after him before turning and looking back up in the storage area and his smile dropped, the dread coming back. It’s just some devices to help him feel better, to ease his heat. Silicon and motors...nothing else. Akira would be able to sense his anxiety if he didn’’t relax, and that’s the last thing he needed: an anxious alpha. _Be the adult_ , he chided and he gritted his teeth a little at that reminder. _17, 17, 17! He was your student not even two days ago!_ The further along the heat went the more Akira would beg for him, and he had to stay as vigilant as he could. Even if ...even if it hurt his feelings...

After sliding a box to the side, he just barely managed to hook his fingers under the lip of the one he needed and pulled it forward, nearly pulling it so far it fell on top of him, but he let go at the last moment. Sighing and relaxing a bit, he reached up and pulled it down properly. Tapping a moment on the top, he decided to give Akira more time to build, definitely not stalling, and started to put the other boxes he’d moved back up so that only the ones they were using remained. Before going back to it, he turned and walked over to the desk, turning on the lamp to the lowest setting and angling it so that the light bounced off the walk rather than shining out into the room.

He checked on Akira, who seems to have worked on an interesting arrangement, putting one of the blankets along the corner of the wall that the head of the bed was pushed into, and wrapped it around the pillows he lined up along it, save for two, which were off to the side. He deliberately unfurled and crumpled two of the blankets from the bin as he arranged them particularly against the pillows and was reaching for one of the discarded ones. Maruki smiled, realizing that beyond thinking it was cute, as he always thought nesting was, and comfortable, the fact that Akira was making a nest out of _his_ belongings was not at all lost on him, and it gave him a sense of pride. A misplaced one to be sure, but it was rooted in what he was rather than the situation at hand. He shook his head and pulled the box over to him as he sat down in the desk chair and opened it.

Akira’s building slowed when the lid clicked open. Maruki moved it to the side and looked over its contents. Wow, it’d really been a long time since he’d opened this. He felt like he barely remembered what some of these were for.

“Heat toys?”

He looked up at Akira who was arranging the last blanket and not looking at him.

“...yeah.”

He didn’t say anything else as he continued.

Well, he reasoned, picking up one and setting it to the side, he should figure out what they could use. Some of these were made specifically for female omegas, so he could dismiss those. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any just for males, he’d had no need for any. So they would have to do with the unisex ones. He swallowed, squeezing his eyes shut a moment and shook his head. Not _they,_ he corrected. _He_ , as in, Akira, would have to. As much as a voice inside of him was telling him that, no, actually, he needed to be there to take care of the omega in need, he needed...to at least _try_ and remove himself from the situation and let Akira handle it himself. Even if there was no physical separation in the apartment between the two of them… Even if it would just mean he’d have to be in the living room or the kitchen and...listen… He swallowed, that circumstance sounding less bearable the more he thought about it. Maybe he could shut himself in the bathroom for some of it, or the balcony. No, he couldn’t do that. If Akira needed him, he may not hear him if he did that… Besides, it was freezing outside...

He gripped the toy in his hand, frustrated between his insistent alpha need to bed Akira, his attraction to him and the shame there notwithstanding, and his moral need as an adult and an authority figure and his _friend_ not to. He was already on such unsteady footing even just _being_ in this situation in the first place…

“Maruki-san…”

He jumped, not expecting Akira to be hovering just beside him, and he nearly jumped a second time when Akira leaned in and turned his head, rubbing the side of his neck against his cheek. Maruki took the next breath carefully through his mouth, hyper aware of how close any part of his neck was to his mouth and he bit his lip a moment, willing himself not to turn toward him. “What…?” he finally asked when he released his lip.

Akira drew his face back and looked at Maruki’s expression a moment before turning to the box and looking in. He blinked, realizing he could probably smell his distress and wanted to scent him to calm him down. He sighed, letting the toy in his hand fall into the box. What an alpha he was...

There was a burst of figs and his breath hitched as Akira reached in and took out the knotting toy he was just holding. He reached in with his other hand and pulled out a different one, and it took Maruki a moment to realize that that one had a nozzle on the end. He reached out and took that from him.

“Not that one,” he muttered, embarrassment finally catching up to him as he put it back in the bin. Akira was looking at what amounted to his collection of _sex toys_ , regardless of whether they were primarily for heat or not. This was absolutely absurd, completely mortifying, _utterly_ inappropriate.

He pulled out another one this time, something small, a device used to help keep a knot from popping that wrapped around the base of the penis. Maruki reached for it and Akira’s eyebrows raised as he turned away from him and looked more closely at it.

“Kurusu-kun, you don’t need that,” Maruki said, turning the chair so he could reach around him and try to get it only for Akira to lift his hands over his head and hold it up, his fingers just making it around the knotting toy to pull at one end of the ring, like he was trying to find out how much it could stretch.

Maruki had a bad feeling about this and tried again, injecting some warning this time, “Kurusu-kun.”

He hesitated before turning back around to look at him, then the ring, then him, and lowered his hands, “Don’t we,” he hesitated to glance down and just barely caught himself from looking straight at Maruki’s lap, but Maruki shifted his legs in the chair anyway, “need it?”

Maruki nearly took his exasperated breath through his nose but caught himself, even though it resulted in a weird, stuttered inhale and exhale, “You,” he emphasized gently, taking the constrictive ring from him, “can use this,” he stopped to indicate the remaining toy in his hand, “on your own.”

The immediate scent of distress from Akira wasn’t surprising, but how absolutely _awful_ it made him feel took him back a bit. He clenched his teeth and dropped the constrictor back in the bin.

Akira was quiet for a moment as Maruki avoided looking at him. “This doesn’t work like mine,” he finally muttered, looking down at it.

God knowing that Akira had used a knotting toy before should _not_ do what it was doing to him right now. It shouldn’t even surprise him, it was only natural he would have! And yet did that keep the image of him arching his back and coming around a knot from springing to the forefront of his thoughts unbidden? No it didn’t.

Maruki placed the lid loosely back on top of the bin. He offered his hand for the toy and Akira gave it to him. Pressing his tongue briefly between his lips, he reached to turn the lamp to illuminate the timer dial on the handle that was normally covered by a cap he snapped off. “How long do you want the knot to last?”

Akira seemed to know what he wanted to say, but stopped himself, his eyes darting to Marukis’ face before going back to the device.

Maruki, consequently, could probably guess what it was. An infuriating part of him, probably the same part that gave him that mental image earlier, wanted him to say it anyway.

“We’ll...just leave it on the time it’s set to, hm?” he suggested, leaving it alone and covering the dial. He unwrapped the short cable from the toy to get the hand pump for the knot at the right angle. “You know how to use the hand pump?”

“Three times?” he asked, the concentrating-hard expression back on his face as he looked at the toy. He put his hand on the closest arm rest to keep himself upright.

“Yes,” he affirmed, reaching back to turn the lamp back to the wall. “After the knot is popped the timer automatically starts. If you need to abort the timer,” he paused to demonstrate and pulled the pump loose from where the line connected to the base, “pull it off and it will deflate.”

He reattaches it and Akira cocks his head a little bit but doesn’t say anything.

“Do you understand?” Maruki asked, looking up at him after making sure the hose was secure.

He nods his head slowly, though he frowned and looked a little dejected. “You’re...leaving.”

Maruki let go of the toy as Akira took it back from him. “...I am. Not the apartment, I’ll be right in the other room, but--”

“What if I need you?” he asked, cutting him off and looking at him like he was about to be kicked out into the rain with nothing but his clothes.

Maruki closed his eyes a moment and exhaled through his nose. Be firm. The heat emotions are temporary, he’ll be okay. “Call for me and I’ll come back.”

Akira frowned and looked at the toy then over at the nest he constructed. He gripped the toy and asked, not looking back at him, “Just… Scent my nest...first?” He sounded miserable, more so than he already did.

He swallowed and cleared his throat. Getting in the nest was a risk, scenting the pillows and then leaving should be easy. He shifted and the chair creaked, signaling for Akira to move and he did. He stood from the chair, reaching back to grind his knuckle briefly in the bend of his lower back. “I’ll be glad to,” he told him, and Akira nodded, holding the toy close against his chest.

What’s the best way not to get caged in… Maruki pondered before approaching the bed and crawling on to it and sitting on his knees. He felt unsatisfied with what he could offer Akira for materials, this wasn’t nearly good enough. One by one, he carefully untucked the pillows from their various blanket wrappings and pressed them against his neck, letting his pheromones release. _No stressful thoughts. I’ll protect you, you’re safe, you’re with me._ He tried to be quick but thorough, and when he was tucking the third pillow back under, careful not to undo anything he’d set up, he heard a short groan behind him and spun around.

Clutching his middle, Akira was squatting on the floor and doubled over his knees, struggling to take a breath.

“Ah...hh..!”

Maruki shot from his place on the bed and crouched in front of him, “Kurusu-kun, what’s wrong?”

“Hurts…” he groaned, the last sound hissing through his teeth.

This was the heat, right? Or was it the bruising? Rumi had never been in any observable pain. “What hurts? Is it the bruises? Is it internal?”

A violent and short head shake was all he got and he sighed. Leaning forward so he invaded Akira’s space, both hands anchoring him on the floor on either side of his legs and hovered his face just passed his ear. He swallowed and started to purr, being forced to breath through his nose in order to do it, but he did his best to concentrate, despite being right at the source of his pheromones. Sweet...silky...but with almost a shimmer of a spicy cinnamon and ginger that coated his throat. He stopped himself from moving closer and rooted himself in place. Stop, no, just concentrate. He’ll be fine, he just needed him to relax so he can get him in the nest quickly.

And Akira did immediately start to relax, a small sound like a whimper loosening itself from his throat. He heard him take a breath followed by a light thud. Maruki moved a bit to look down and realized he’d dropped the knotting toy on the floor as it rolled to rest against his hand.

“How do you--?” he started to ask and both his sentence and his purr broke when he felt warmth press against the gland on his neck. A static zip of pleasure branched over his body and he cleared his throat, the zip happening again when Akira rolled his tongue over his skin, his arms coming up around his shoulders to hold him close. He shuddered under the effect of the feeling.

“Ah--Akira…” he gasped, moving his hand from the floor and reaching up, the soft kissing sounds just under his ear all going right to his dick. He reached behind Akira and grabbed at the back of his neck, pressing his thumb and pointer finger right onto his glands at the base of his skull. He immediately stopped and took a breath, making a strained noise before going nearly limp, and Maruki rocked back and brought his other hand up to embrace him.

He let the pressure up and ran his hand up through his hair, allowing himself a very brief self-indulgence that helped Akira too, feeling the soft curls twirl through his fingers as Akira shifted on his knees. Pressing hard against the glands on the back of an omegas neck when they’re especially sensitive during heat, can usually create a temporary loss of coordination and a head rush that lasts just a few seconds.

“Sorry, that was probably unpleasant. Let’s get you to your nest,” he said, helping Akira stand just enough to turn and deposit him on the bed as he got his senses back about him. The boy frowned and rubbed low on his stomach as he started to shake and Maruki pressed his lips together. Maybe...the reason he never saw Rumi in pain was because there wasn’t any delay in dealing with...the heat... 

“You’re...you probably need…” he tried but for some reason it felt too embarrassing, both because of how blunt it was but also because he knew saying it outloud would affect both of them, so he decided to leave his sentence hanging.

Akira looked in front of him and it took Maruki just too long to figure out what he was doing before his hand shot out from his stomach and grabbed his erection.

He groaned, his long ignored need pulsing at the touch and Akira sat up a little straighter, eyes a little wider, as he pressed his palm closer to wrap his fingers around him.

“Kurusu-kun…” he muttered, tense, as he reached to peel his hand from him. “Please…”

“This,” Akira said, resisting him a little bit even as his hand was shaking, “I need this.”

“You need a knot,” Maruki said and swallowed as Akira grabbed him harder, trying to stroke him through his pajama pants and effectively cutting him off. His grip wasn’t actually that strong anymore, and the shaking in his hand was creeping along his arm now. “N-not...mine…” Maruki added in protest with a hiss, thin fingers straightening over his length to run up it to the tip and back down, his hips following the movement despite himself. Taking the opportunity, and working through the mind fog of pleasure the touch was causing him, he grabbed Akira’s wrist to pull him off. When he felt him jerk and heard him wince, he remembered the bruises from the handcuffs and let him go to withdraw his hand.

He apologized as Akira rubbed a little at his aching skin, his eyes down and face drawn. The heat was bad enough, being rejected over and over again from an alpha was probably even more confusing… Maruki sighed and leaned down to pick the dildo back up. He didn’t consider himself a very strong person, regardless of what people might tell him, and...and he doesn’t have faith in himself to be able to resist Akira for the entire length of his heat. He looked at the dildo, conflicted, his recently touched cock screaming for more attention, begging not to be replaced by this dead, fake thing inside the omega that deliberately and clearly asked for _him_ instead. For _his_ cock to fuck him senseless. For _his_ knot to seal him shut.

...in the end was resisting Akira even the best thing for him? Or was he somehow construing the situation to be the best for him and his own selfishness? It’s true that the idea at their friendship falling apart caused him a lot of pain, and he was sure Akira wouldn’t want that either...and if he had sex with him, even if it’s a biological drive and an excuse, would they come out unscathed?

Dark brown eyes raised to look over at the shivering boy, who’d resigned himself to lay down, facing away from him, his body curled up against the pillows along the wall. His shoulders strained with the breaths he took from the pillows around him, the bruises staining his skin in muddy blotches expanded everytime he took a breath.

Was he finally just at the point of justifying to himself that it was okay to indulge both of them in what they wanted?

Maruki gripped the toy and walked over to the bed and hesitated as he looked down at him. Miserable, having likely never spent a heat with an alpha, always with devices to trick his body into thinking it’s getting what it's asking for, or maybe even worse, with nothing at all. Ruts weren’t great in alphas, but they weren’t cyclical. He’d gone into a rut a couple times after the stress of Rumi’s traumatic event, and after he decided to leave, but heats were worse. The psychological and physiological distress was tremendous, and it happened no matter what an omega did aside from what amounted to sterilization.

And to go into heat with barely a break after being imprisoned, brutalized, and drugged...

He put his knee on the bed, the body in front of him tensing a little and then turning to look up at him. Maruki sighed and moved to lay down beside him, Akira’s gray eyes pinned to him, wide and shimmering with both hope and anticipation.

“Not mine, but...would you want me to help?” he offered, shifting his arm under the blanket and section of pillow wall above them so he could lay down almost completely on his side.

Those eyes shifted to something a little more unsure but no less interested as he rolled over onto his back and Maruki stopped him from rolling over to face him.

“Just…” he muttered, not really sure what the point of saying this was but he wanted to anyway, “I can’t stand to see you suffering, and knowing my decision is partially responsible.” He blinked, eyes looking at Akira’s mouth in case he spoke instead of his eyes. “I...just don’t want to ruin our relationship…”

The shivering hand laying over Akira’s stomach clenched a moment before he shifted his torso out from under Maruki’s hand and turned on his side toward him, under his arm.

“Pretend...I’m yours…” Akira suggested, a bit of a tremor in his voice as he said it. His hand reached up to touch along the hair on Maruki’s chest.

Maruki swallowed thickly, being in a nest that smelled like him and an omega surrounding him in pheromones finally, _really_ , starting to affect his judgement. It must be. Not that he’d been clear headed all this time, but as much as he thought that suggestion should sound like a really bad idea...for some reason the awkwardness or dread never came. Only the thick, warm feeling of possessing, having, acceptance from another.

“For your heat,” he manages, his voice softer, meaning for it to sound like a question but the inflection never happened.

Akira shifted his arms, snaking them around Maruki’s neck and murmured, “My...Alpha…” before shifting and tugging Maruki to him and pressing a burning kiss to his mouth.

\---

Watching Maruki struggle was so hard to parse through the hormones and loud, urgent needs swimming in Akira’s head. He knew, intrinsically, that Maruki was nice, that he always wanted what was best for him, that he valued himself very little, and that he was an Alpha, apparently, very experienced with dealing with omegean heat cycles, the latter fact he was happy with and also a little unhappy with. So, watching him struggle not to get too close to him, not reciprocate his advances, and reject his own body’s needs, was simultaneously completely characteristic of him and maddeningly baffling all at the same time. When Maruki had taken out the box of devices, building the nest had cleared Akira’s head a little bit of one of his very urgent needs, and the resignation that he would have to go through another dry heat, even with alpha pheromones in the air, was something he’d started to accept. But when Maruki purred for him and he stole the opportunity to taste his pheromones directly from the source, it’s like all that preparation of going through it again evaporated.

_Why didn’t this alpha want him? Maruki didn’t want him? Why not? He must not be good enough. How can he convince him that he is? Can he not? Is it because he isn’t...he isn’t Rumi…? He can’t be her, so…_

He’d curled up in his nest as the longing of being filled racked through him, surrounded by the fresh scent of the alpha who rejected him, keeping him at arm’s length. He said he’d help…he was hard for _him_ but he _still_ just...he would leave him with...that soulless thing…?

That creeping despair was washed away so swiftly when Maruki joined him in the nest and laid down, that it felt nearly weightless. It was hard to really follow what he was saying to him, the elation singing like a choir in his mind. _Alpha does want me! Maruki...he does!_

The only thing that really was communicated to him when he spoke was Maruki’s eyes evading his gaze, his hesitation. So he suggested, “Pretend...I’m yours…” When that didn’t make him pull away again, the pretense of pretending he was owned melted seamlessly into his subconscious and he sighed, wrapping his arms around Maruki’s neck, his Alpha. For now…

His lips were a little chapped when he kissed him, and a thrill magnitudes above when he was riding him or smelling his shampoo or being touched along his neck radiated through him. Especially when Maruki sighed noisily through his nose and kissed him back, the hand with the dildo still in it pressing against his back. He shifted over the mattress to press his body against Maruki’s front, trying not to break the kiss as he did. When his hips met Maruki’s, a moan bubbled up in his throat, immediately rutting against him and, this time, Maruki didn’t stop him or push him away. The arm under the blanket that his head was laying on shifted, followed by a warm hand laying over his opposite shoulder and holding him close, his forearm caging him against his body as he kissed him. And he was so _good_ at it. The desperation to get Maruki to react to him was quickly evaporating from Akira’s system, and the more comfortable mental space allowed him to really try to enjoy getting to live out one of his many fantasies, well two, or three actually, if you count being in bed and knowing what his hard cock felt like in his hand. How many more would be actualized? His feverish, horny brain could spin plenty of things he’d like to happen, but in the end, it was up to Maruki. His Alpha would know what’s best, now that he’s let himself make those decisions.

For a while the only noise in the apartment, besides the whir of the heating system, was the light, rhythmic shifting of fabric and bodies and kissing with the occasional muted hum or moan, less muted when Akira pressed his tongue against the seam of Maruki’s lips and, despite the indelicacy, Maruki let him in, and the sound Akira made when he could feel his hot tongue against him was somewhere in between a gasp and a whimper. His fingers twitched against Maruki’s chest as it became a bit harder to breath, his hands having been slowly making their way down from his shoulders, and his left hand pressed flat and turned to slide under the seam of Maruki’s pants. The back of his fingers bumped what he realized was the head of his cock and he immediately turned his hand to grab hold of it. Maruki broke the kiss, his back arching to press his erection further into his grip as he clenched his teeth.

Akira took a breath and bit his lip briefly, sliding his fingers down to the root of him. “Mm...mine…”

Maruki pressed his lips together into an “o” shape and exhaled, followed with, “Don’t be hasty…” The register of his voice was low, and not the same sort of tone he had when he was serious. It was thick and it sent a shiver down Akira’s spine. “We’ve got something else to do first…” he added and Akira jumped a little as the cool feeling of the silicon tip behind him just barely pressed under the waistline of the boxers.

_First! He said first! If I’m good, he’ll knot me after all…!_

Akira made quick work of the underwear that had managed to somehow stay on despite being too big and the constant rutting for the last few minutes. He had to let go of Maruki to get them off and throw them, and of course the stubborn man adjusted the front of his pants back to how they were in the few second window he had. Before Akira could reach for it again, Maruki pressed the toy against his hip and loosened his hold on his shoulders.

“Lay on your back for me.” His voice was soft and still in that deeper register, and there was nothing in Akira’s mind but the desire to follow it, so he did, laying his hands over his middle. He wasn’t even using alpha command, it just had that kind of effect on him.

They had been in the low light long enough that his sight had adjusted, and as Maruki pulled his arm back to prop himself back up, his eyes scanned down Akira’s body and it was the first time he’d felt a hint of embarrassment in being naked since this all started, though that embarrassment eased a little as Maruki shifted up a little further to better position himself to use the toy and Akira registered his scent again. The bonfire smelled less now like just nice burning wood in a forest, but there was another earthy scent now, like walnuts or chestnuts being roasted as well. Akira eased at the smell, his legs falling open a bit as the tension left them.

Maruki rolled his shoulders and let out a breath, “Akira…” And when Akira clenched a bit, his cock jumping when he shifted his hips at the sound of his first name in that tone, Maruki smiled a bit. “You liked that?” he teased as he adjusted his glasses before reaching to rub against his closest thigh with his free hand, careful of his bruise.

He had to resist bringing his hand up to cover his face, the anticipation of the hollow ache going away and the fact that it was Maruki doing it almost making his eyes misty. Instead, he reached his hand back to slide along the dark blanket above his head and raised his shoulders up so he could look down. Maruki was clearly trying not to look flustered as he reached for Akira’s hips, the skin on his face, ears, and neck ruddy and flushed, which was almost comical when paired with the sight of his trapped erection at nearly fullmast.

Akira shifted his hips at Maruki’s touch.

“Bend your lower back so I can--” Maruki started and Akira complied, hesitantly bringing his feet off the surface of the bed to make his access easier, his stomach clenching with nerves. Maruki’s eyes went wide for a moment before he blinked it away and he cleared his throat, his erection briefly straining in his pants. “That’s it…” He checked the toy one more time, the lead to the bulb and the handle, before pressing one hand against his hip and angling the toy down. Akira pulled his eyes up to the ceiling, curling his toes as the silicon pressed against his leaking entrance. It wasn’t as cool as he expected it to be.

He gripped into the blanket above him as the tip rubbed up and down against his hole, subconsciously shifting his legs back, “Mmm…”

“Ready?”

Akira nodded and almost immediately it started to breach him. He took a breath, his insides relaxing to accept it, the natural lubricant plenty so that it wouldn’t face too much resistance. It felt weird, not operating the toy himself, but the tightness in his abdomen and the urgency in his mind already began to clear into a blissful haze all the same.

It took no time until it stopped after a slight increase at the base. “How do you feel?” Maruki asked. His voice sounded further away than it was.

Akira nodded and added, “Full...good…” and the grip on his hip tightened momentarily before easing up again.

“Good…” he echoed before pulling the toy part way out and then back in.

Akira sighed just before his breath hitched when the rhythm finally started. The shape and size of the dildo was pretty close to the one he had for his heats, and whatever minor differences they had started to blend with the push and pull inside him, a hot spark lighting in his core whenever he would hit the bend in him just right.

“Ah! Ma...nn…!” Akira gasped, precum pooling on his stomach. He fisted the blanket above him before letting it go and turning his hand to try some semblance of resistance against the rhythm Maruki was setting. The long denied arousal in him wasn’t going to let him last very long and he keened when Maruki changed the angle and suddenly pushed in to hold.

Thankfully the knot didn’t come and the tension shifted a bit. He turned his head just in time to see Maruki lay down beside him and prop himself up, adjusting his hold and starting again.

“M-Maruki…” Akira managed his name coherently this time as he looked at his face, partially obscuring his own as he pressed against his forearm. It was hard to focus on his face or look at him for more than a few seconds, even if his expression was… It was gentle, and yet his eyes were dark with lust. It sent a thrill through him, but keeping eye contact and using his brain to try to read his face felt almost impossible. Under the onslaught of the toy mixing with the constant hot arousal of his estrous it was too much and he broke eye contact first, closing his eyes. He shifted his arm and wrapped it around Maruki’s back, somewhere between an embrace and holding on to him.

He didn’t know how long they were like this. Maybe thirty seconds, maybe ten minutes, time was incredibly hard to judge when pockets of his consciousness were all stimulation. It occurred to him at some point that Maruki wasn’t touching him anywhere else, and articulating himself between the gasps and whines from the toy pounding into him, especially at the hard and slow rate he was at right now, was incredibly difficult. He was going to fall apart.

“M--Ma--! Ahhn--ah…! Maru-ki…!” he finally managed.

Maruki was a little winded too. Maybe it was more than thirty seconds then. “Are you close?”

He felt a touch against his cheek and he bit his lip, arching his back just a little and nodded. “T-touch...please…hh..”

“Where?”

Akira shook his head weakly and gasped, “Ah! An-any--!”

Maruki’s thumb rubbed against the curve of his cheek. “Anywhere…”

There was movement under the blankets that Akira was lying on and he shifted a little to accommodate whatever Maruki was doing, feeling the hand that was against his cheek a moment again touch along the side of his neck and he swallowed.

“What about...here?” Maruki asked, pinching at his gland.

Akira gasped in turn, “Hah! Ahh!” as he arched his back again. The rhythm inside him shifted back to focusing on speed and he groaned, losing his breath and struggling to breath against that pace.

He heard Maruki groan and his hand released his neck and shifted to press at the juncture of it and his shoulder to keep him in place, and the air entering Akira’s lungs was all fire and walnuts. His head swam as his nails bit into Maruki’s back. The pressure in his core was fit to bursting, and the anticipation of that relief almost made him cry.

[ ](https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/84531771)

“M-Ma--!” he said as he tried to cry out his name, the alpha responsible for making him feel this good, for helping release him from the agony of heat and want, but he couldn’t do it. Before he could try again, the tension in his gut suddenly snapped and he moaned loud, throwing his head back as he finally, _finally_ came. Slick gushed around the toy and his cock shot cum over his stomach and chest, but Maruki didn’t stop moving. Akira cried out again and again as he continued to fuck him through his first orgasm of the night until he set his teeth and his hand went slack against his back. He felt him sit up suddenly and out of his reach. A moment later the knot on the toy inflated sharply inside him and he keened again. He’d never done this before, he always knotted himself right when he came, but right at the end of this crest was almost too much. The pressure of it pushing him open kind of hurt but it felt incredible all at once and he threw his head back again, arching his back so sharply his ass briefly raised off the bed as his heels dug into the mattress, the cum on his belly swiftly trailing down the bend on either side of him to his back.

“God, Akira…” Maruki groaned. He took hold of both of his hips and leaned over him, pressing him back down into the bed. He didn’t need to hang on to the toy now that it was inflated. “Do you want to come again?”

Through the bleary intensity of being off kilter from the delayed knot and being aroused by being filled regardless, Akira registered his question and blinked, trying to parse it. What did he mean? Of course he did. But how…?

The warm hands left his hips, Maruki anchoring himself up further over him now. He pressed his forearms against the mattress as he almost laid over top of him, and Akira could feel his erection, still clothed, press up against the mess of his stomach. He immediately turned his head, just barely catching sight of his brown hair and pressed his face against his, bumping his glasses up as he pressed his face along the plane of his cheek. Maruki turned and kissed his flushed skin before speaking against it, his hot breath washing over him.

“Come for me.”

The unique resonance of his tone went into Akira’s ear and immediately latched on to his hormones, his nerves, his brain, and he was coming all over again. It was so sudden he barely had time to take a breath before it slammed into him and a deep groan pushed its way out of his chest. He came all over himself again and Maruki this time, his body squeezing around the knot shooting its own unique pleasure through him that had him grasping at the alpha on top of him, his arms wrapped around him, fingers clawing at him for purchase until he found it and held on to him.

Maruki cradled his head, his wrist lining mostly with his neck as he pressed his face against it, flooding him with his pheromones as he kissed against his neck. Eventually Akira’s orgasm started to subside and so did his tears, embracing Maruki so tight it would probably hurt his fingers to let go. Maruki turned his head away from his neck and shivered in his grasp. His breathing and heart rate stayed high even as Akira’s slowly started to relax.

“That’s it…” Maruki coaxed as the grip across his back loosened and Akira’s arms started to relax enough to let him sit back up. “You’ve been so good, you’re such a good omega,” he praised and Akira’s chest felt warm as he blinked, trying to refocus his eyes to actually see his surroundings as he laid back down on the bed. He felt a kiss press against his cheek again and he turned his head as quickly as he could manage, trying to catch his mouth with his own before he pulled away, but he missed his window. He blinked his wet eyes and almost pouted before feeling a smile press against his lips and he immediately returned the kiss. He followed him as far as he could when Maruki pulled away before letting his head fall back against the bed and sighed heavily, sated and relaxed for the first time in hours.

“I’ll clean us up,” came Maruki’s voice as he patted his hand and slowly stood from the bed.

Akira hummed as Maruki left the room, the aftershocks of his body’s reflex to clench around the toy also finally subsiding. He had the overwhelming need to fall asleep and tried to fight it, but it didn’t take long before he faded into unconsciousness.

\---

It took less than two minutes from Maruki entering the bathroom for him to jerk himself to orgasm over the toilet. The relief after being hard and ignored for so long was so immediate and intense that he nearly fell down to the rough tile floor. He put both of his hands on the tank and kept himself up, eyes closed as he breathed and tried to collect himself.

He had no concept, no idea that doing anything like this with Akira would feel just… He’d even restrained himself to some degree, but when he reacted so harshly to the knot Maruki lost himself a little bit and actually _alpha commanded_ him to orgasm again. He shook his head. He was...just so turned on, even though he was _trying_ , it seemed that must have been his limit. He was glad he’d inflated the knot before he could reach that limit, or he doubted he’d have been able to resist replacing it.

He inhaled long and deep, held it a moment, and let it go slowly, reaching up to wipe at his brow with the back of his hand. Maybe he was discounting the effect of not having had sex at all in years and suddenly being in the midst of an attractive omega he cared deeply about going into heat. If he were the kind of person to give himself a break, he’d consider that maybe his resistance so far was extraordinary.

After a few more moments to collect himself, he took his hands from the tank and stood to his full height. Okay, checklist. He’ll drink the rest of the water in the glass in his room and get fresh water for Akira. Clean him up, pull the soiled blanket under him and replace it if he can manage it. Hopefully it didn’t soak through on the bed. He started to reach up to run his fingers through his hair and stopped himself just in time and turned to the sink. He was tired himself, but he had things to do. The faster he did them, the faster he could lay down and sleep as long as he could before Akira woke him up again.

After washing his hands, wiping the cum off his stomach, and changing his pajama pants when he realized he’d gotten some on them, he grabbed a fresh hand towel and got it warm and wet before going back to the bedroom. Akira’s head was lolled to the side and asleep, the knot still tight in him, and Maruki cleared his throat as he sat down beside his prone form. He was only a few wipes in when Akira stirred and made a noise, immediately grabbing at Maruki’s wrist before his eyes blinked awake and he looked up at him.

“Sorry,” Maruki apologized even as Akira relaxed and let him go, “I was hoping I wouldn’t wake you up.”

Akira nodded and rubbed at his eyes but otherwise didn’t speak, so Maruki finished his task, rubbing along his sides when he noticed the dim light catch on the wet trails there. Akira squirmed at one swipe and Maruki looked at him and met his eyes.

He was ticklish…?

A brief, lightly tense silence passed before Maruki smiled knowingly and went back to cleaning him up, the body under his hands relaxing when he did.

“The...second time,” Akira started as Maruki stood to go and pull a blanket from the box. “You alpha commanded me.”

Maruki stiffened a little and shifted worriedly on his feet. “I...I did, yes.”

He didn’t say anything at first and Maruki chanced a peek back at him. Akira shifted his feet on the bed, his movement limited with the big, stiff toy stuck in him. He was red in the face and put his hands over his stomach now that it was clean, “It was really hot.”

Oh. Maruki blinked, his eyebrows shooting up. _Oh_. He cleared his throat and busied himself with the blanket. “I...good. I’m glad.”

He walked back and deposited the blanket by the bed before going back and pulling a different, flatter box down and cradled it as he opened it and pulled out an absorbent bed pad. He set it down by the box of blankets and walked back over and sat down beside Akira again, the pad and washcloth in his hand. 

Akira sighed through his nose, “Does an alpha’s knot normally last this long?”

Maruki blinked and rubbed at the back of his neck, “Well, I’m not sure about normal, but…”

“It’s supposed to be how long yours is,” Akira said. So, that had translated even though neither of them had said anything at the time. Maruki shrugged a little bit.

“It is,” he admitted, turning to look back at him.

Akira let his head rest back, his chin up in the air. “Good.”

Maruki cleared his throat and broke eye contact, “I suppose that means you don’t keep it going long during your heats.”

Akira sighed and Maruki glanced back at him, seeing him shift to reach between his legs. The toy must be deflating. A part of him wanted to let him take it out himself and watch him, but right now the more sensible part of his brain was actually operating.

“Lay back,” he said, scooting back a bit and turning to get to it himself, “I’ll get it.” Akira’s grip on the handle hesitated before he let go and laid back down. Maruki replaced his hand and held the hand towel underneath. Once the bulb shifted, a signal that the air was completely out, he gently pulled it out of him, squeezing the cloth around it to collect as much slick as possible. The smell of it flashed through his nose to his brain but, since Akira was calm and he had already orgasmed, both of them, it didn’t have as much of a pull as before. Once it was completely out of Akira’s body, he shakily sat up.

“Hey,” Maruki started and Akira shook his head.

“Bathroom,” he muttered and turned to get off the bed and stand. He was a little unsteady but not too bad. When he turned to walk passed to go to the bathroom, he took the toy from Maruki, he let him take it.

Well, that made this easier at least, he reasoned. While Akira was gone, he took the blanket that was soiled off the bed and sighed with relief to see the slick hadn’t soaked through. He put it in his laundry bin and replaced it with the blanket he’d retrieved, laying the pad where he guessed it would need to be for Akira to lay down, closest to the wall of pillows, and Maruki would sleep on his other side.

He stopped then. Should he sleep here with him? He had a nest now, and it smelled like him, so presumably he should sleep much better than he did before. He frowned. It didn’t feel good to sleep in another room, and he knew a part of that was being territorial, being the omega’s chosen alpha when he was vulnerable. Well...him trying to choose for Akira didn’t seem to be helping, so he’d ask him, even if he knew what his answer would be.

He cleaned up, downed the water and replaced it with fresh water to finish off his list, and organized the room a little when he heard the door to the bathroom open and Akira walk back over. He offered the glass to him when Akira reappeared and he took it gladly after pitching the dirty hand towel in the laundry on top of the blanket.

While he was drinking, Maruki spoke up, “Should I go back to the futon or do you want me to stay here with you.”

Akira furrowed his eyebrows and lowered the glass, “Stay.”

He couldn’t help but chuckle and took his glasses off, “Alright.”

He put the glasses on the window sill before stopping as a thought occurred to him and he picked them back up. “Oh,” he started, “I should get you some clean underwear.”

“I’ll just...get them dirty again,” Akira pointed out and Maruki hesitated, glancing back at him despite not having his glasses on. He squinted a little to try and focus on him as best he could, “So…”

Akira nodded. Maruki turned back to the window. Well, if he wanted to sleep naked…

He put his glasses back down as Akira put the knotting toy on the desk, now clean and dry, before walking back to the bed and laying down on top of the pad.

Maruki grabbed the heavy comforter as he joined him and both of them pulled it up so that it covered them both, Akira taking a minute to tuck it along the pillows against his side. Maruki watched Akira arrange the comforter on his side how he wanted it. If he’d been told he’d be here right now just 24 hours ago he wouldn’t believe it, not for a single second, even if he wouldn’t be able to deny that it wasn’t a bad place to be. Well, bad was relative, wasn’t it? He shouldn’t be here or want to be here. Akira was a minor, he was a confidant and a friend, but still he wasn’t an adult, and Maruki wanted to be a guiding figure for him, even if Akira was the one that really lit the way for his research after it stagnated so long ago.

Akira turned to look at him and Maruki glanced over his face. “You took the bandage off?” he asked, realizing now that it was gone.

He received a shrug, “I only needed it for the ice, right?”

Maruki hummed, “I suppose so.” He hesitated in moving his hand up before awkwardly patting Akira’s head, and he squeezed his eyes shut when he did. Maruki smiled. He looked a little bit like a cat.

“Sleep well, I’ll be right here when you wake up,” he told him and pulled his hand away.

Akira looked back at him like he wanted to say something, but just nodded. “Okay, you too.”

Maruki settled on his side, the bed not quite big enough for both of them to sleep on their backs, and let his exhaustion take him to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

It was about five hours of solid, unbroken sleep before Akira woke Maruki up again, his face desperately pressed to his neck as he licked at his glands. Unlike the agonizingly long and drawn out performance of last time, Maruki got right to being attentive once he was fully conscious, running his fingers through his hair and murmuring in his ear. Much to Akira’s chagrin, after a while of kissing, rubbing and touching, he’d gotten up to go get the toy and, despite his protests, Maruki just smiled knowingly at him as he pulled the comforter off and laid down again. Once the dildo was back inside him again, Akira’s protests disappeared like vapor into the air.

They slept a little longer after that before Maruki got up to start making breakfast, and the smell of sizzling sausage finally woke Akira up too. He sat up in bed and messed with his hair, noticing the folded shirt and pants for him to wear. He got up and put them on, yawning as he walked into the open living room and over to the coffee table to check his phone.

“Good morning.” Maruki’s voice drifted in from the kitchen.

“Good morning,” Akira answered, opening his phone and skimming over the group chat. He had a few concerned texts from other people that knew his secret and let them know he was alive and okay as he sat down at the kitchen table.

“I’m almost done, if it isn’t too much…” Maruki started, glancing over at Akira who looked back at him expectantly, “I actually bought some coffee recently.”

Akira smiled a little as he put his phone down and got out of his chair to walk into the sunlit kitchen. The apartment felt a little different in the morning despite there only being two sources of natural light for the place. The bright sunlight streaming in from the glass balcony doors was nice and he immediately felt a bit more energy in his step as his skin warmed from it. It reminded Akira that he’d actually stayed the night here, with Maruki, and he briefly rubbed at his neck and tried to keep his mind on task.

“What do you use to make coffee?” Akira asked, looking over his counters.

“Oh, um, just a regular coffee maker,” Maruki confessed. “I made instant coffee for a long time because I just didn’t have the time or attention to do anything better.”

At Akira’s wrinkled nose he laughed. “Did living at Leblanc for a while make you a coffee snob? I can imagine it would.”

“Maybe a little,” Akira confessed, canting his head as he considered how best to solve this problem. If Maruki went through the trouble of buying coffee, he didn't really want to use the regular machine. Besides, even if he can't produce a Leblanc-level quality brew here, he might as well take the opportunity to make the best coffee he could. An opportunity to show off for Maruki? He'll take it.

He walked over to the stove and retrieved the empty kettle on a back burner and filled it up with water from the sink. “What kind of filters do you have?”

“Filters?”

“For your coffee machine.”

“Oh!” Maruki exclaimed then looked a little unsure, “Um, normal ones?”

Probably to fit the reservoir for the pot, he figured. He continued, shutting off the water, “Do you have a glass container or something that can stand hot water?”

Maruki blinked as he came back around and set it down on the back burner again, turning it to high. “Uh, hm…” He looked down at his skillet of half sausage links as he contemplated, “A pitcher...haha, I have a few vases.”

Akira responded seriously, “Really?” If the glass of the vases were thick enough, they could stand near-boiling water. He could use it for a pour-over container.

Maruki pointed to him where they were, a bottom cabinet near the glass doors, and Akira walked over and opened them to look through. He pulled a small glass vase with a carved wavy pattern along the outside with a bit of a narrow spout.

“I’ll use this,” he announced, walking to the sink to wash it out.

“Coffee from a vase…” Maruki murmured under his breath, and Akira glanced to see him smiling with amusement as he turned his sausages about.

Maruki was quick to tell Akira where things were when he asked, the filters, the coffee in question, and the mugs. The kettle was whistling around the time he had everything set up. The sausages had been moved by then as eggs were being fried up in their place.

“So, you’ve made a makeshift pour-over coffee set up?” Maruki asked, letting the eggs cook as he watched Akira anchor down the filters with one hand, despite banding them around the opening anyway, and carefully, gently, pour the coffee in a slow circle over the grounds. “You’re incredible.”

The corner of Akira’s mouth quirked up, his chest warm at the compliment, “The shape isn’t all that important, I just needed something where the filter wasn’t too big for the top.”

“Are you going to pour the whole time or stop in between?” Maruki asked, breathing in the air a moment. “It smells great.”

Akira kept his eyes fixed on the coffee, making sure the bloom of the water didn’t get too high and that he adjusted his pouring speed when he needed to. “Since the container isn’t made for coffee, I’m not sure it would hold if I did the normal method.”

Maruki hummed beside him and replied, “That makes sense.”

As the eggs popped beside him, he went back to his task, and the rest of making breakfast was fairly quiet, the domesticity an oddly easy thing to slip into. Between Maruki being a self-sufficient adult and Akira always helping at the cafe when Sojiro asked, and sometimes when he didn’t ask, coffee was brewed, rice was fixed, and breakfast was ready in no time.

Pouring the coffee was weird, doing it out of a vase with no really good way to pour, so Akira tried to use the momentum of the liquid itself, holding on to the glass container with mits so he didn’t burn himself as he made their coffee.

“Do you need sugar?” he asked, projecting his voice a little as Maruki set the table and divied up the food.

“Ah, I don’t mind trying it the way it is first,” he received as his answer, so he finished pouring two black cups of coffee and carefully set the vase in the sink so the heat couldn’t damage the countertop. He discarded the mitts and brought the cups over, putting them in their place and sitting down at his own.

“How often do you eat the cafe’s curry for breakfast?” Maruki asked as he sat down at his place, immediately going for the coffee.

Akira glanced to the side sheepishly before picking up his chopsticks, “About every day?”

Maruki laughed, “Well, this will give you a small change of pace.”

That brought a smile to Akira’s face as he picked up the natto and scallion mixture and scooped it onto his rice to mix it all together.

Maruki blew across the surface of the coffee as Akira mixed the natto and rice in and took a tentative sip. He shook his head, “I can’t believe it can taste so different.”

“Eggs taste different between frying them and scrambling,” Akira pointed out but Maruki shook his head.

“It’s still only hot water and coffee. Eggs have the white and the yolk that can really change how they taste, the oil you cook them with notwithstanding.”

“Your coffee maker could be burning your coffee,” Akira suggested, satisfied with his mixing and taking a bite. It was pre-packaged natto, but he hadn’t had it in so long that it was nearly nostalgic.

“I hope not…” Maruki muttered before taking another sip.

Their breakfast continued along quietly until Akira finished first, sipping down the remainder of his coffee as he looked at Maruki, who was finishing his soup in turn. This was nice, he liked this. And he needed to not get too attached to it. As much as he’d want it to happen again in the future, this was a freak accident, and the only reason he would stay here longer than one night was because of his heat. He took a moment to surmise his physical state and, reassured he’d be fine for a little while longer, he relaxed a bit.

“Do I have rice on my face?”

He snapped out of his thought process and turned away from Maruki, realizing he’d been staring at him and turned to his coffee cup and took a sip. “Nope,” he said, though he could feel his face flush at being caught staring off into space in his direction.

Maruki didn’t say anything as he finished his soup and set the bowl down. Akira stared into his coffee, in a foreign cup, contemplating along his previous line of thought until he said, “I like it.”

“The coffee?”

Somewhat regretting saying that out loud, he put the cup back down. “Being here. With you,” he clarified. He worked up the courage to glance over at Maruki, who looked surprised and a little conflicted. He settled on a smile and stood up from his chair, reaching over to ruffle Akira’s bedhead.

“I like you being here too,” he said before reaching to take their plates.

Akira flushed again, knowing that he didn’t mean it the way he’d like him to mean it, but appreciating the sentiment all the same. He moved to get up, “I can--.”

Maruki shook his head, “I’ll get the dishes. You should call Sakura-san to tell him what’s going on.”

Akira’s stomach sank, which was not a pleasant sensation when it was newly full. “What?”

“You won’t be able to go back to the cafe today,” Maruki told him, taking the plate after stacking the bowls on top of it. “I can call him after this...if you’d prefer that.”

The idea of Maruki having to explain to Sojiro the situation made him immediately shake his head, refusing. “No, I’ll do it.” He steeled himself a bit as he looked at his phone. He grabbed the coffee and took another sip for courage and flipped the phone over to unlock his screen. It was a little past ten in the morning. At least he knew that no matter what time of day, he’d probably never be too busy to answer.

So he dialed.

On the third ring, Sojiro answered, “Hello?”

Akira cleared his throat, “Hey.”

“There you are! Man, you really had me worried, going off and doing dangerous shit like that,” Sojiro admonished. Beaten half to death by police and Sojiro would still nag him, but it made Akira smile a little bit anyway. He'd learned the difference between Sojiro's complaining out of inconvenience and nagging out of concern, having watched his regard for his safety shift from one end of the spectrum to the other over the last half a year.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Better than I did last night,” Akira admitted, glancing towards the kitchen at Maruki cleaning the dishes. If he heard him, he didn’t react.

“Good. I don’t know what those guys did to you, but Niijima-san was dodging some of my questions when I talked to her last night. That woman can be irritating." He grumbled before speaking up again. "I can restock my first aid supplies before you come back, so, what do you need?”

Akira scratched a fingernail against the surface of the table, “I...actually won’t be coming back tonight.”

Sojiro was quiet for a second, “What are you talking about?”

He dug his nail a little harder against the surface, “I...actually went into heat last night.”

The quiet was the same but for some reason it felt oppressive. “You _what_?” Sojiro asked, exasperated, then sighed like he was trying to cool down and be reasonable before continuing. “Look, I don’t really know about all that stuff, but, isn’t it dangerous for you to be at one of those treatment places?”

It made sense that he thought he was at a heat house… “I’m not at a heat house.”

The water at the sink shut off.

“Then...wait. You’re still with the counselor?”

“Yeah.”

He could just barely hear Futaba exclaim in the background but she quieted down immediately. He could practically see the look Sojiro was probably shooting her way.

He heard another sigh, and the way his voice sounded changed. He probably had him on speaker phone before. “Put him on.”

“I’m fine--”

“Do it.”

Akira sighed and got up as he looked over to Maruki who was finishing drying off his hands. Maruki turned to him and smiled knowingly, walking over to take the phone.

“Sakura-san,” he said, calm and bright as if the likelihood of being hounded was negligible. He turned to walk away but Akira grabbed him by his shirt and stopped him, fixing him with a look to stay in place.

He still couldn’t really understand Sojiro on the phone, and Maruki instead pointed to his coffee cup and patted his shoulder before walking into the living room, “That’s right,” he said to Sojiro.

Akira sighed and did as he was told, nervously glancing back as Maruki sat down on the couch before the wall dividing the two rooms cut him off as he made his way to the sink.

He turned the sink on and, figuring they probably wouldn’t be drinking more coffee, decided to clean his cup and the vase as well. It wasn’t really that he was worried about Maruki not being able to handle Sojiro or anything, he just… He shook his head and focused, carefully removing the bands from the filters and picking them up by the ends to toss them and the used grounds out in the trash before setting to clean the rest.

When he came back into the living room, Maruki turned to glance back at him and stood.

“Kurusu-kun’s back. Of course, I understand. We’ll see you soon,” he said before handing the phone to him.

Akira took it, surmising Maruki’s face, but it didn’t tell him anything, so he put the phone to his ear.

“It’s me.”

“Sorry,” Sojiro said, “but you know why I reacted how I did, right?”

Akira nodded before realizing he couldn’t see him, “I know.”

“Good. Just...be careful, alright? Dr. Maruki told me he knew what he was doing and I want to believe him, but, you know you can be honest if anything’s fishy, right? Not only does your school have a shitty track record for new teachers right now, but isn’t he an alpha?”

He couldn’t really argue with that.

“Just--I don’t know, say the secret ingredient in the curry recipe if you’re in trouble and we’ll get you out of there.”

Akira fiddled with the back of the kitchen chair and he chuckled, “I’m fine, Sojiro. I wouldn’t have asked Niijima-san to bring me here if I didn’t think I’d be safe.”

“That doesn’t really cover this kind of circumstance, though, does it?” Sojiro fired back before heaving a deep sigh, “You and Futaba alone would make me age faster than I already am, let alone all this other business.”

Akira grinned and after a beat Sojiro added, “I guess I’ll see you later this week. Call me when you know you’ll be coming back, okay? Your friends are eager to see you.”

Probably wouldn’t last that long, actually. Well, with the amount of self-control Maruki has been showing, it actually might. Akira didn’t comment on that aloud, though. “I will.”

“He already gave me his address, so I’m serious. If you feel in danger, just tell me and I’ll be right over.”

Akira nodded, “Okay, thanks. See you soon.”

“You too.”

He hung up and let out a sigh as he let go of the chair. He’d work a dent in it if he kept fidgeting with it.

“See?” Maruki asked, “Not so bad, right?”

Akira nodded, turning to agree before realizing that Maruki had gotten dressed. He furrowed his brow and Maruki smiled apologetically.

“I have to go get a couple of things if you’re going to be here, to help,” he told him.

A deep fear shifted inside Akira and he put his phone in his pocket, “Where are you going?”

“The drug store. It’s within walking distance, so I won’t be gone long,” he reassured.

Akira frowned, and before he could protest, Maruki was walking over in his socks, putting his coat on.

“I know it’s not going to feel good for me to be gone,” he said matter-of-factly, “But I promise you I’ll come back as soon as possible.”

He wanted it to reassure him but Akira's nerves were getting worse just at the anticipation of him leaving, and he realized that a lot of it was his heat, but not all of it.

“What if the police come while you’re gone?” he asked, scratching at the table again. He caught himself and took his hand back.

Maruki took the hand he’d just retrieved into his and brought it up. Akira’s nervous heart leapt as he brought the back of it to his neck and scented him. “They won’t.”

He said it with all the finality in the world, with all the surety that it would be completely impossible for it to happen, and Akira eased despite knowing that he didn’t have control over something like that. His omega body was relaxing because the Alpha would protect him, and he needed to trust him.

Finally he nodded and said, “Alright,” and Maruki smiled gently, letting his hand go so he could take it back, and he immediately held it close.

“If you lay down in your nest, it will help take the edge off a little bit,” he suggested before turning and heading to the foyer to slip out of his house slippers and into his shoes.

Akira watched as he took his coat, looked back to wave and he waved back before the door closed and locked behind him.

It didn’t happen immediately, the anxiety. He actually felt kinda calm once he left. The apartment smelled like him, mixing with the lingering smell of breakfast and coffee. Natto, sausage, coffee, and a chestnut bonfire. It was a space that was lived in, occupied by people, a home. Well, just Maruki, far more often than anyone in addition. Probably. Akira frowned. He didn’t really want to ponder on that ‘probably.’

He shifted on his feet, walking into the foyer to check that the door was locked. Knob and deadbolt. He glanced at the chain and turned to walk back into the living room, rubbing at his forearm. It made sense that an omega in heat would be nervous if the alpha they were taking their heat with was gone. It was one of the things they covered in health class, but he’d never experienced it before personally. The omega was vulnerable in a cycle and it could activate the need for a knot at any time and put them into a state that made it impossible for them to protect themselves. But he was inside, he could smell the alpha he trusted. The police had no idea where he was, Futaba had made sure they couldn’t track his phone before they went on the last heist where he was captured, because they knew he would be captured, so they couldn’t find his location at any point that way.

He took his phone from the table and walked over to the couch and sat down. When was the last time he had absolutely nothing to do? He squinted, looking vaguely at the cable box under the television. Even if he had to stand on the train and couldn’t read, he’d watch the news or consider how best to approach whatever problem was in their way. If he had down time during the evening and no one to spend it with and couldn’t go outside, he’d read a book, or play games, or make infiltration tools. He never ran out of things to do. But now, here he was, stuck because of his biological cycles with no ability to leave or do anything until it was over. No access to the things he would usually use to occupy his time. He barely used social media, didn't have any games on his phone...

Fidgeting with his bangs, he got up and decided to shower, maybe. No, he didn’t want to wash off Maruki’s pheromones he’d left on him. He glanced down at his hand and rubbed the back of it against his neck. His shoulders eased a little. He’d told him to go to his nest so...maybe he should just do that.

He’d eaten, he’d slept, and there wasn’t much else to do than sit in his nest and wait for the cycle to start anew. He walked back into the bedroom and put his phone on the window sill. Had they changed the pad on the bed? He couldn’t remember. He crawled on to it and leaned over to put his hand on it. It was clean, so Maruki must have changed it. He moved to lay down and noticed that the water glass was almost empty, so he got up to take it to the kitchen and refill it.

Goosebumps suddenly blanketed the back of his neck just after he turned to bring the filled glass back to the bedroom and a harsh shudder bounced through him, causing him to nearly drop the glass. His heart rate jacked into higher gear.

Shit...it was starting.

On unsteady legs, he walked faster back into the bedroom, put the glass down and crawled into his nest. He put his back against the pillows along the wall, the smell of his own pheromones, Maruki’s, and sex immediately filling his nose and he pressed his knees together. Hopefully...he’d come back soon…

\---

The clack and rattle of the pill bottle on the checkout counter felt a little more final than it probably should. Maruki pulled out his wallet from his hip pocket as the woman at the clinic window rung up his total. He knew he reeked of an omega in heat, and thank god the service worker wasn’t acting like she noticed if she did in fact notice at all.

“Card, sir?”

He blinked as he pulled out his credit card and glanced at her, her bored eyes resting on him with no anticipation or enthusiasm. He smiled, “Yes.”

She typed at her keyboard and gestured at the card reader, “Go ahead.”

He didn’t hesitate as he pressed his card through. Something in his mind was probably slipping out of his grasp now, some of his resistance, just having this assurance at all would make it more difficult to keep using the toy on him instead of himself. The knowledge that there would be no risk of pregnancy at all, despite a very small voice in him being upset about it, might dash the will he’d kept a hold of to make sure he stayed in check.

_Good_.

He nearly hissed at his inner thoughts as he took the card back from the machine and pocketed his wallet. Part of him was antsy that he had to leave him alone, even for a second. A much bigger part of him than he expected. He thought the idea of being in the other room was bad, but this was so much worse. The false anxiety that he would be replaced as his temporary alpha was always there, but the very _real_ anxiety that government goons could storm his apartment and take him away, take him _from him_ , was very possible.

He shook his head as the receipt printed and the woman gave him a look as she handed him the bag and receipt.

“Have a good day,” he said with all the sincerity of a get well soon card filled with signatures from your classmates.

“You too,” he answered, half paying attention, as he turned and left, nearly shoulder checking a man on his way out and he apologized, just catching the mild alarm on the man’s face. He could smell an alpha scent on him and he hastened his exit.

Out in the cold, it cooled his head down a little bit and he glanced up at the sky. The clouds were puffy and gray, and there was a mild worry in him that it might mean snow.

_Good, then he can’t leave._

He made a disgusted noise. Okay, he had a few morning after pills, it’s already more than he needed. He had some nutritional drinks for him, because honestly, the fact that he stayed as aware as he did this morning was nothing short of a miracle in his experience. He probably shouldn’t have asked him to make coffee, his...wanting him to make it took over his better sense. His selfishness took over, rather.

He made his way down the sidewalk, flipping up his collar as a breeze came through and after about ten minutes he was pushing through the front door to his building. He took the stairs, not wanting to deal with the elevators, and got to his door fairly quickly, his heart pumping a little faster the closer he got to his apartment. He fiddled for his keys and got the door open, shutting it quickly when he smelled the heat pheromones again. Now that he’d stepped out, even for just twenty, maybe thirty minutes, it was enough to clear his sense of smell, and his entire apartment, from the landing of the front door to the balcony doors to the bedroom, was all figs: sweet, dripping, ripe fruit. He took a breath as he turned to lock up the door, half way in the inhale remembering to switch to his mouth but it was already firing off signals in his brain. Most of the notes in his scent was normal lust, but some of it was anxious.

He heard a wanton moan come from his bedroom and he nearly stumbled over the landing from the foyer to get there, forgetting his slippers and throwing his coat on the couch as he practically ran there, leaving the bag along with it.

Holding on to the doorframe, the first thing he saw was Akira, naked again, one hand tugging at his weeping cock and the other wrapped behind him, his fingers working in and out of his hole. The sight could have made him faint with how quickly the blood in his body centered straight to his cock, and he was already loosening his belt and letting his pants drop to the floor before he really realized what he was doing.

Akira turned at the sound of the metal belt clasp hitting the floor and he removed his fingers from his ass so he could turn over, a line of slick dripping from his fingers and on to the bedding. “Maruki…”

He pulled his shirt off and tossed it on the floor, immediately getting on the bed and cradling Akira’s face to kiss him. He kissed him back and Maruki felt both arms wrap around his neck, one of the hands in his hair.

“Alpha…”

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, pausing to kiss him again, “I’m back, I’m back…”

A wave of figs enveloped him and he responded by letting his own pheromones go, and Akira hummed against his lips.

Maruki’s head was swimming again. God, to walk in and look at that, it was like a dream, like some porn movie. His head was filled with nothing but Akira, he saw him behind his eyes, he smelled and tasted him, his every nerve lit up with the knowledge that he was here, under him, a primal beacon for the taking.

Akira took one of his arms back and palmed at the front of Maruki’s boxers, squeezing around his growing erection, and Maruki hummed, shifting his hips.

“Hard...already…”

“How could I not be...?” Maruki asked in a breathy laugh, reaching down along his back to replace his hand, “After walking in to see you like that.” He was barely aware that he was breaking the invisible touch barrier he’d set up for himself: that he would make skin to skin contact with as few of his erogenous zones as possible, especially his genitals. That arbitrary line evaporated as he rubbed his fingers over the slick, tight hole, and Akira’s hips immediately tilted into his touch.

Akira bit his lower lip as he turned his head to the side, shivering as Maruki rubbed around the tight ring of muscle before pressing his middle finger inside him. Akira released his lip and opened his mouth in a soundless breath and Maruki pressed his face against his neck, lapping at his gland, sucking against this skin as he pressed his finger all the way in and slowly pumped in and out of him. It didn’t take long for him to add a second finger and Akira did make a sound that time as he pressed his hips against the pressure to envelope his digits faster.

“M-more…” he begged, breathy.

Maruki released his gland, leaving it red and swollen and kissed along his collarbone, pressing his fingers all the way in and curling them.

Akira’s back stiffened after a few moments and he gasped, “Hah! Ah!?”

Maruki pressed his mouth to his ear, “Akira…” He straightened his fingers as Akira clenched around him and relaxed his back a little in turn. “A male omega has both a uterus and a prostate. Do you know what that means?”

Akira breathed for a few moments before he shook his head.

“Men and women usually have just one sensitive spot inside them…”

“G-spot…” Akira managed.

Maruki smiled and continued, “That’s right. There are two dynamics that have both places because they have both reproductive systems. Female alphas…” he trailed off, gently adjusting his hand and the bend of his fingers, situating them so his pointer and middle fingers both individually situated over two areas inside with different textures, “And male omegas.”

He rubbed against them and Akira immediately gasped again, his entire body going taught as he was stimulated, arms tightening around his neck as his body stilled, taking it. Maruki breathed as best he could, eyes closed and eyebrows furrowed as he tried to concentrate on keeping his touch on the same place, listening to Akira breathe and feeling his body seem to not know how to handle the new feelings. It made sense, but the arousal in his scent was enough of a reward for Maruki to continue. He eased up and slowed his movements when he felt Akira’s arms shaking and he pulled his face back to look at his face. His eyebrows were pushed hard towards the top of his nose and his mouth was open as he tried to breathe.

Did he not like it? Was it too intense? Maruki moved his fingers away and Akira immediately relaxed again, pressing his mouth closed as he whimpered.

“Sorry, was that too much?” he asked, guilt lancing through the hot arousal in his stomach.

Hesitantly Akira nodded as he blinked his eyes but didn’t look at him, “S-sorry…”

Maruki immediately started to purr, pulling his fingers gently out of him so he could wrap both arms around him. Akira released the breath he was holding in and nearly went limp in his arms, his hold around his neck loosening. “It’s okay,” Maruki assured him, breaking the purr off, “I shouldn’t have started without easing you into it. I was too eager.”

He felt Akira pull an arm back from around him and kiss him against his cheek. The hand he’d retrieved came up to cradle under his jaw, fingers moving over the lower part of his face. “Ah, I haven’t shaved…” Maruki said in a quiet voice, only realizing it now that he was being touched along the hair there.

“I like it…” Akira murmured, pulling his fingers back to his chin. “It’s sexy,” he added and Maruki flushed a little at the compliment, the hand moving from his jaw down to the hair on his chest.

Maruki cleared his throat and swallowed, “Thank you.”

“Better than I imagined,” he continued, sounding a little more out of it the more he spoke, and Maruki felt a shudder run through him, the hand against his chest shaking.

‘Imagined’ he’d said. Maruki pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth. Did that mean he’d...fantasized about him before? He narrowed his eyes briefly, a part of him upset that he might even consider that possibility and the fact that it only served to further arouse him, but it was an echoing, dissolving shout in a chasm, getting smaller and more insignificant with each passing second.

“Is that so?” he asked, wrapping his fingers around his side and sliding his hand down toward his hip and then back up his rib cage. How was his waist so thin…?

“I thought...about sucking you off...in the nurse’s...office…”

Maruki shuddered, the mental image extremely easy to conjure together, and at this point all he could feel was the arousal from it and a frustration that it never came to pass when the opportunity was there, the moral outrage at that frustration as far away as it could possibly be from his conscious mind.

“What if someone had walked in?” he murmured, gripping his torso and pulling him back, his eyes falling to his chest and his soft, pink nipples.

“...wouldn’t…care...” he tried, his breathing escalated again and the heat scent strengthened. The smooth spice in it made Maruki’s mouth water.

He moved his hand, rubbing his thumb over his nipple, the little bud hardening under his attention as Akira shivered. He was about to lean down and suck on it when the back of Akira’s foot pressed against his erection. He chuckled and kissed against his nipple anyway, rolling his tongue over it and Akira immediately arched into it.

“Ahh…! Unn…” Akira moaned, his foot coming away as he wrapped his legs around Maruki’s torso, the pressure against his sides only encouraging him to suck against his skin. Akira’s cock was trapped against his stomach now, and he all but ground up against him as he paid close attention to that little spot on his body.

After a little bit, Maruki released it and moved to pay the same attention to the other, the noises and shivers never stopping. Every movement he got out of Akira, every gasp and reaction made him feel so good. Being able to please this omega, regardless of whether he’d ever been touched by another alpha or not, was exhilarating and affirming.

“In...inside…”

He finally let up the attention to his chest and raised his head to look at Akira, who was flushed and practically panting.

“Is that where you want me?” Maruki asked, reaching to touch between his cheeks again. He was soaked, and just reaffirming that made his cock jump to attention.

Akira nodded, reaching again with his foot to toe at the waistband of his boxers.

Maruki smiled and reached down to help him, pulling his boxers off this time. He rolled a little so he could kick them off before getting up on his knees, and Akira looked up at him from the mattress. He seemed to realize what was happening and reached down on a bit of a delay and grabbed a hold of Maruki’s cock, no longer caged by any fabric.

Maruki chuckled. He really liked doing that, and his laugh broke off when Akira ran his hand up to his tip and back down. He huffed, leaning on one hand to grasp his hip with the other and Akira tilted his hips back immediately, fingers still gripping his shaft.

“Are you going to put it in?” he asked, opening his eyes to look at Akira.

His eyes were lidded and his lips parted, but there was something very serious about his eyes, that bright determined surety somehow making its way through the heat haze, even just for a few moments, and Maruki’s heart clenched.

“This is mine,” he said seriously despite the slight slur, squeezing around him at the base, where his knot would be. He blinked, looking to maybe be struggling again with communicating clearly, “Isn’t it?”

Maruki took a breath deliberately now through his nose, really tasting his pheromones as he shifted his hips into his grip, his cock pulsing suddenly in his hand. The smell was going to change in a moment, and he wanted to be able to taste the difference on the back of his tongue. His omega...was about to really be his for a little while.

“Yes, it is,” he answered, a little surprised with how much that turned him on. He moved down, Akira’s eyes falling to where they were about to join, shifting his hand down a bit to more easily manipulate the angle and grip, aligning his head against his hole. He waited a moment, Akira’s hand trembling around him as the anticipation mounted before breaching inside him.

The grip around him strengthened and he heard a pleasured gasp come from underneath him so he pushed on, a growl vibrating in his chest. The inside of an omega in heat was like nothing else, hotter than a normal body and practically clinging to any cock that enters them. This heat, the slick, and the feeling of it going into a _male_ omega...with the unique texture of anal walls shifting and squeezing around him added to the mix, it was hard not to just thrust right to the hilt.

He felt a shiver run through the body he was sheathing into and heard a high-pitched gasp underneath him and opened his eyes, the smell of hot semen hitting his nose as he looked down at Akira, writhing with his arms crossed over his face as he came.

Maruki blinked, stopping what he was doing.

“Did you…?” Maruki asked, feeling the aftershocks around his cock, and it wiped his brain of the rest of his question. His alpha brain was firing like crazy, his eyes glued to the new lines of cum up to Akira’s chest. He was so sensitive, so wound tight, so aroused, that he came just from him _entering_ him. He took a breath and pressed all the way in, Akira keening as a result until he was flush inside him.

Akira wrapped his legs around him as soon as he was entirely inside and squeezed his thighs around his hips as he moved his arms, one rubbing at his eyes a moment before laying down on the bed. He looked somewhere between a little relieved and embarrassed.

He wanted to speak and reassure him that he had nothing to be embarrassed about, that it was completely fine, if not extremely satisfying for him to know that he wanted it that much, that he wanted _him_ that much, that just the act of penetrating him was enough to make him reach his crest.

But it didn’t happen. Instead Maruki shifted down on to his elbows, one hand grabbing his shoulder and started to fuck him. Akira cried out, wrapping his arms around him immediately to hang on.

The wet sound of the impact of Maruki’s thrust was so loud in the space even with Akira panting right by his ear. His pheromones coated and recoated every place inside his nose, his throat, his tongue, and they were both pumping them out in spades. The hole he fucked was simultaneously soaked so thoroughly that he could move easily, but so precisely tight around him that he felt like he could feel even minute details on the walls inside him, every line and divot. He wanted to memorize it, wanted Akira to never ever forget every single part of his cock that he could feel thrusting in and out of him.

It was times like this that he understood now what a pull of a siren must feel like. The sirens in The Odyssey must have been Omegas. If they were, especially if they were like Akira, he’d completely understand why all those men drowned trying to reach them.

“Maruki...ah! Ma-hnghh! Ah!!” Akira gasped and he was coming again, so Maruki slowed down a little, taking the opportunity to catch his breath and let him catch his. This was probably his first time having sex, he reminded himself, and his groin felt hotter at the thought.

Akira panted, the sound only broken when he swallowed. Maruki kissed along his neck, leaned up to kiss his mouth briefly, which was immediately returned, before pulling back up on to his hands to look down at him, Akira’s arms loosening to let him do it. Maruki reached to caress his face and move his hair out of his eyes as he stopped thrusting all together, letting Akira return to a state of normalcy.

He felt Akira deliberately squeeze around him after a few moments and he sucked a breath in through his teeth. “If you keep doing that…”

“What?” Akira asked with a smirk, looking about as defiant as someone freshly post orgasm could manage.

Maruki smirked back, a little helplessly. He had him wrapped around his finger, didn’t he? Well, to say that Akira was a weakness for him would be correct, after all. But he didn’t think that was much of a bad thing.

“You’ll get exactly what you want,” he told him, half promising and half threatening as he pushed himself up and on to his knees, taking Akira’s hips in both hands. Akira positioned his hands against the bed as Maruki started again, harder rather than faster. He was quiet at first save for heavy breaths and the occasional hum as Maruki focused on pistoning in and out of him. Every now and then Maruki would let a hand wander down to his growing erection to tease him which gifted him with a sudden squeeze and a sharp, cute noise. He paused to shift his legs up and over his shoulders and Akira’s eyes flew open as he started thrusting anew, the angle entirely different despite the small shift in posture.

He wanted to do everything with him, know every part of him intimately, show Akira what it was like to have an _alpha_ during heat and what he should expect. Show him what it was like to be taken care of, truly. Maruki groaned as he shifted his hips, able to see the divot the head of his cock made in his abdomen. He wanted to leave a mark on him everywhere and his eyes looked at his neck before shifting back down as Akira’s legs started to stiffen. He held off, slowing down and the legs on either side of his head relaxed.

Akira shifted his hands down a little bit, splaying his fingers over Maruki’s knees. Maruki took one of his legs from his shoulder and bent it at the knee, kissing the inside of his ankle as he slowly rolled in and out of him, and pulled it over so both legs were on one side. He wrapped one arm around them to keep them in place as the other hand reverently moved down the leg he’d moved and to his hip. Even with the bruises, he was so beautiful. He knew some of that was the effect of his pheromones interacting with his endocrine system, but even objectively, without the heat, without the sex, he was a beautiful person. Inside and out. He was unflinchingly captivating.

“Brace yourself against my legs,” he said, and Akira’s hands slipped up a little bit to get a better grip against his thighs. “That’s good…”

He started to thrust again as he wrapped his other arm lower around his legs. He was even tighter with his legs together, and he kissed up and down his ankles and shins where he could reach, running the hand closest to his feet up to them and back down, keeping a steady and slow pace.

He kept at that for a while until his back started to hurt, so he leaned forward, putting a hand down and taking Akira’s legs with him. Akira looked a little alarmed as Maruki hovered over him and situated his knees, but when he started at that faster, heavier pace he seemed to like, his eyes rolled back and he closed them, hands gripping on to his thighs.

[ ](https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/84722033)

Maruki closed his eyes as he pounded into him, once again losing himself in the erotic sounds coming from Akira, the sexual and emotional arousal of joining together with him making him feel like he was smoldering under his skin, making his brain light up like fireworks during a summer festival.

“Hah...ahh...hah-ah…!”

Maruki opened his eyes, looking right at Akira as he noticed something in his voice change. His eyes were a little wet. He immediately stopped.

“Are you--?” he was going to ask but Akira interrupted him, squirming in his grasp.

“Close…!” he all but complained and Maruki immediately felt relieved. Good. He sat back on his knees and let Akira take his legs back to be on either side of him. Akira drew his legs up a bit, moving his hips back and forth as he squeezed around him, frustrated from having stopped before he could come. Maruki stared for a little bit, the omega’s cock hard and near purple despite having orgasmed at least twice already, and the area where he was inside of him covered in slick and sweat. He brought his hand up to run gently over the bump behind his cock where his testicles would normally be and he shivered in response.

“Do you want my knot?”

That got him a nice, hard squeeze and Akira nodded immediately, turning his face to better look at him.

“How do you want it?”

Akira reached out for him and Maruki leaned over, letting him embrace him.

“Like this,” Akira murmured, his arms wrapped around behind his back as he nuzzled under his jaw.

Maruki hummed, shifting his legs a little bit and reaching to pull back on one of Akira’s legs, “Shift your hips back--there, perfect,” he instructed before bringing his hand back, anchoring himself up with his arms as he started to move again. It didn’t take long for Akira’s breath to escalate and he wrapped his legs behind him, locking his ankles together behind Maruki’s back.

“Alpha…” he moaned, “Maruki...ah! Ah!”

Maruki grunted when Akira tightened up around his cock and kept it that way, deliberately. He whimpered a little, pushing himself to thrust faster, making sure to slap his hips against him as hard as he could.

It didn't take long for him to win out. Akira cried out as his grip was broken through and he shivered. He nearly clawed onto Maruki’s back as he vocalized with each thrust, and Maruki hoped it felt as deep to Akira as it did to him. If deeper was what Akira wanted, if harder is what he wanted, faster, anything, he’d give it to him, he’d do it for him. He couldn’t believe he had the power and strength to resist him until today, to keep from thrusting inside him the second he asked for it, knotting him when he begged for it. Even just the memory of it being true felt like a dream, a cruel one where he hurt the one he cared about instead of giving him everything that would make him happy.

The ankles around his back loosened as Akira’s legs tightened.

“Ah! Ta-Takuto…! Kn-Knot me! Please!”

A prickle went down Maruki’s spine and he fucked him head long into his orgasm, squeezing his eyes shut as he gripped him harder, not allowing his body to shift back at all and instead take his cock over and over.

Akira whined and cried out as he came between them, his cock spewing out cum and Maruki fucked him through it as long as he could.

“Akira…!,” he growled against his shoulder as his knot started to pop. With one last thrust, he came, and pushed as far into him as possible. He shuddered, vaguely feeling Akira practically spasming beneath him, crying out, or sobbing, he couldn’t tell which one. He barely registered sound for a few seconds, the rush of endorphins and happy, possessive, alpha hormones completely drowning his faculties. It was a rush that he recognized as familiar, but the sudden intensity felt almost like the first hit of a drug he’d quit years ago. His omega. _His_ omega.

When it finally started to recede he was clutching onto Akira and trying to think of anything but the last time he knotted Rumi, trying to think of no one else right now but the one he was sharing this moment with.

No one else belonged here.

His grip on Akira’s shoulder finally eased up and he moved his hands to push himself aloft. It was a little difficult, but he wanted to check on Akira, he needed to make sure he was okay. That this was what he wanted, no matter what the scent in the air said to him.

Akira’s eyes were unfocused and barely open, the grip he’d had around his back tenuous and barely hanging on, so Maruki reached to touch his face. After a moment of nothing, he blinked his long eyelashes and turned to the touch, nuzzling against this hand and closing his eyes completely.

He seemed okay, so Maruki leaned down and scented him as best he could as he kissed along his shoulder.

They stayed like that for a little while until Akira hummed, “Wow…”

Maruki moved back up so he could see him better. Akira looked much more present now.

“ ‘Wow’, huh?” Maruki asked and Akira looked over at him, the dreamy smile not entirely gone from his face yet.

“I didn’t...think I could feel anything as good as this,” he confessed, reaching up to wipe at the tear trails on his face that Maruki only just noticed.

“I take it you’ve never been knotted before, then?”

Akira shook his head and Maruki continued, trying to stifle the pride and ego that stoked in him, “Well...thank you, for letting it be me.”

Akira’s face was already red from exertion, but his bashful expression communicated all it needed to, even if it was brief, “I…” He reached up to fidget with the bangs, most of which were stuck to his sweaty face and Maruki just smiled.

He never finished his sentence, so instead he reached up and fixed Maruki’s glasses a little bit. Maruki blinked, and looked into the middle distance a moment. There was a possibility that the surge of everything that comes with knotting, particularly the chemical part of it, could make Akira’s emotions a little more volatile even after his heat, or especially for his next one because of this. If he doesn’t have another Alpha to help him.

At just the mere thought of another Alpha being there for his heat, Maruki felt a very real and awful urge to snarl and he clicked his teeth together instead and shook his head, realizing he’d been staring at Akira’s neck. When his concern for Akira clashing directly with his hindbrain possessiveness almost made him feel bad enough to be sick.

“Maruki-san.”

A hand came up to poke his glasses and he cleared his throat and refocused, reaching up to fix them, “Sorry.”

“What were you thinking about?” he asked, a little wary.

“Just…” Maruki grimaced a little. Well they were stuck here for a little bit, it’s not like he can dodge the question. “There are...aspects to being an alpha that I don’t really like, so sometimes...a thought occurs to me that is born from those instincts and...”

Akira touched his neck, his fingers crisscrossing over the bruises left there. Shit he had noticed where he was looking. Of course he would, where else did he have to look right now?

“Were you blaming yourself for something?”

Maruki looked at Akira’s face and, despite the exhaustion, his gaze was pinpoint sharp. Maruki shrugged a little, “Don’t worry. I’m just...you know me.”

“Someone who’s too hard on himself,” Akira said matter-of-factly, poking his chin and Maruki glanced away sheepishly. When he looked back, Akira was looking down.

“Do you want to see it?” Maruki asked, eager to change the topic. At a nod, He curved his back and leaned a bit away, carefully reaching to adjust their hips up so he didn’t pull at Akira too much.

He didn’t say anything, his reaction instead to reach down and touch along the seam where he was plugged up, fingertips running along the root of the knot as well, just a little bit.

“Will my body really absorb everything?” he finally asked.

“Most of it at least,” Maruki confirmed, looking down with him. “But, I have a pill for you to take, so don’t stress.”

Akira looked up at him and laid back a bit with a somewhat satisfied smile, “You were planning on knotting me? Is that where you went, a clinic?”

“It-It was a contingency! Honest!” Maruki immediately countered and Akira just chuckled as he brought his hand back. Maruki sighed and laughed with him, and Akira made a sound like a hiccup.

“Ngh, that feels weird.”

“Can you feel it when I laugh? I can feel it when you do.”

Akira touched his lower abdomen where Maruki’s cock was inside him and nodded. After a moment he asked, “Is it true that an alpha's knot cuts a heat in half?”

“It’s not exactly half, but it shortens it significantly. Since a knot is all the heat is really for, the body starts to go back to normal after it receives one from an alpha.”

Akira hummed, laying back down again, and Maruki returned to how he was before he asked to look.

He reached up to touch along Maruki’s shoulders, running his hands down over his arms and back up. It felt nice, and Maruki let his eyes fall shut, letting him touch him wherever and however. “How do you feel?” he asked, letting his eyes stay closed.

He heard, and felt, a brief chuckle. “Very good, Maruki-sensei~,” he teased, the smile evident in his voice.

Maruki grimaced, “Ah, please, don’t remind me.”

Akira laughed, pinching at Maruki’s cheek and he pulled away from his playful grasp, looking down at him with mild bewilderment.

“You aren’t my teacher anymore.”

“As of literally two days ago, yes,” Maruki countered.

Akira hummed, “Does that mean you’re not going to knot me again later?” he asked, squeezing along either side of him with his legs.

Maruki reached up to adjust his glasses and sighed, “You already know I can say ‘no.’” He said it with more confidence at this point than he felt it to be true. Now that he’d already knotted him once...the reality that he could resist doing it again, or having sex with him again when the next wave comes, was significantly less likely.

Akira hummed again, although this time the tone was unmistakably less impressed. Maruki felt him try to squeeze around his cock this time, though it was mostly just around the tip since he was stretched taught otherwise. “You’re my friend...more than you ever were my counselor,” Akira told him.

That...felt good and not great at the same time. Maruki furrowed his eyebrows and hummed. “I’m...not a very good counselor.”

“You did more for me _as_ my friend.”

Well he wasn’t exactly arguing with him.

Maruki finally felt his knot start to go down and his cock soften along with it. Akira shuddered and stretched his back a little as it did. A moment later, Maruki slowly and gently pulled out and Akira brought his arms to lay over his torso, not caring much about the mess.

“Feel empty?” Maruki asked, watching Akira’s fingers shift a little over his lower abdomen.

“Yeah…” he answered, a little forlorn.

“It will pass,” he assured. Maruki shifted on the bed and slowly, carefully, stood up, a few joints popping as he did. He sighed and rubbed at his hip. “Ugh…jeez...”

Akira laughed from behind him and he just shook his head as he turned to look down at the omega that somehow wasn’t completely spent despite looking tired enough.

“Do you think you’re up for a bath?” Maruki asked.

His laugh quieted at the question and he shifted a little before sitting up and blinking a few times. “Maybe…”

“I can...be there with you, if it will make you feel better,” Maruki offered, knowing full well that most of that offer was because being separated by two doors would only serve to make them anxious right now. Most of it.

Akira nodded and shifted over the pad, pulling his legs over the side and stood up. Maruki immediately reached to take his arm so he could better steady himself on his feet. He checked to make sure he was okay before indicating the glass of water and walking back into the living room to rustle around in the bag. He ripped the paper bag open and took out the bottle. He checked the label as he walked back into the room before opening it and handing one to Akira.

He took the pill and drowned it in water as Maruki resealed the medicine. He sighed after pulling the glass away and handed it to Maruki, who drank the rest of it.

With that out of the way, the two of them made their way across the living room together.

\---

Akira was sure that he would remember that knot for the rest of his life regardless of how many he might have in the future. It had felt like a white hot flash followed by the most incredible euphoric wave completely enveloping his mind and body. Nothing he’d ever experienced before could come close to it, and that it was Maruki’s knot was an almost perfect scenario. His life experiences hadn’t been going well for him lately, so he was intent on savoring this.

And now they were about to take a bath together and as hard as it was not to stare at Maruki when his back was to him for any reason, walking in front of him, turning the water on, adjusting the water, turning it off, his eyes kept pinning to him, looking over the expanse of exposed skin that was still so new to him. He had a few moles close to his spine on midway up his back and he wanted to touch them so badly, so he fidgeted his fingers to rid himself of the impulse and turned his eyes down to the stone floor. Maruki’s body wasn’t extraordinary. He was thin and didn’t seem to work out at all, but it was still his, and that made it special. He liked the contrast of his tanner skin against his own, and he didn’t have any beauty marks or moles on his own body. It was the individual details he liked.

“I think that should do it.”

He looked up in time for Maruki to turn back to him, the last few drops of water in the line dripping onto the stilling surface in the tub.

He approached the tub and stepped in as Maruki took his glasses off and put them on the side. Maruki hadn’t made it quite as hot as he had last night, but it was still pleasantly warm, and he readily sat down.

Maruki settled at the other end of the tub, a little forward to avoid the spout and cupped water in his hands to wash his face. He used more water to sweep his hair back and Akira paused, having only seen him with his hair down, or at least his bangs never completely out of his face. He had a widow’s peak…

He quickly rubbed at his neck with his wet hands before doing similarly to Maruki, having a bit more hair to pull out of his face than him.

“Your hair,” Maruki started, and Akira looked at him as he finished running his fingers through, “Is that how you wore it back at home? Or is that another part of wanting to seem inconspicuous?”

He hadn’t really thought about it, but that probably had helped his image somewhat. Akira shrugged, “I didn’t really change it.”

“Ah,” Maruki said, spreading water up and over his arms.

“Why? Do you think it doesn’t suit me?” he asked, splashing water over his chest, rubbing his hands down over his front to wash any lingering semen off that he hadn’t gotten with tissue paper earlier.

“Not exactly that, just that it’s a shame, between your false glasses and your hair, that you obscure your eyes so much.”

Akira found that being self-conscious of his eyes was a very odd feeling since, regardless of if he felt sheepish or not, he had to, well, _look_ with them. “My eyes?”

Maruki hesitated before shifting to sit back, probably in preparation for wetting his hair properly. “They’re...very striking,” he said, before submerging himself.

Akira had to clench his fists when his feet and legs came closer, mentally yelling at himself not to touch him.

When Maruki came back up he bumped against the faucet and hissed, reaching up to rub at the spot on his head as he grimaced. “Ah…”

Akira sat up and leaned forward like he was going to move toward him, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine! I’m fine, don’t worry,” Maruki reassured quickly after checking his hand for blood and waving his concern away.

Akira sat back and, after surmising Maruki for a moment, leaned back to dunk his head underwater and come back up, rubbing the water out of his eyes as he sat up.

They were mostly quiet as they washed, passing the bottles between them, from Akira to Maruki and back. The silence was somehow both comfortable and not, as Akira found that despite being knotted something like fifteen minutes ago and feeling satisfied that his body was still a little feverish and anxious, and it took until he reached to rub soap down his inner thighs and his crotch that he realized he was hard again. He stifled an irritated sigh. He was used to being hard near constantly when riding out a heat with only a toy, but even this morning he hadn’t been during breakfast, at least he didn’t think so.

Or, god, was he hard just because he was around Maruki naked? Why did that somehow feel _more_ embarrassing? Why did a part of him want him to notice on top of that??

He blinked hard once and got back to it, bending his knees to get to his feet and ignoring how bunching up his legs seemed to open him up. He _did_ just take a knot so...it...made sense that his insides wouldn’t have completely gone back to normal yet.

He let his legs back down and looked over at Maruki as he reached over his chest to soap up his upper back.

The words were coming out of him before his sense could kick in. “I can get your back if you want.” He gripped his submerged hand into a fist, mentally chastising himself for suggesting it, yet that did nothing for the flutter in his gut at the idea of putting his hands over the beauty marks he wanted to skim his fingers over.

Maruki regarded him a moment with a small, unsure smile, looking to rub near the back of his neck a moment. Then he dropped his hands, one bracing on the lip of the tub. “Sure, thank you.”

Akira managed to avert his eyes, busying himself with getting more soap on his hands as Maruki turned around and sat down a little closer to him. He hesitated as Maruki relaxed his shoulders, noticing the marks he’d left on his back. Just some crescent indents left by his nails mostly, but they were still there and he rolled his shoulder against the side of his neck to try and keep the pheromones in. It almost felt like he couldn’t control them even when he was lucid, or that he couldn’t predict when his body would release them even now. It wasn’t all that strange when first starting a heat cycle, but usually he could get a handle on it at this stage of awareness. Was it because he was with an alpha this time? Was heat around an alpha really that different?

He spread his hands over Maruki’s back, watching the man’s head lull forward a bit as he relaxed under his touch. He didn’t really feel too much tension, well, there was a little close to his neck but--. Akira immediately drew his hands away when he realized they were too close and moved them back down his spine to cover everything, watching the little moles he’d noticed before get covered in suds, and then re-emerge after washing the soap off with water.

He swallowed before saying, “There.”

Maruki shifted a little, his hand back on the tub’s edge, “Do you want me to get yours?”

“Thanks,” Akira said, taking the opportunity to turn around before Maruki could in an effort to keep his arousal hidden. After a delay, he handed the soup bottle to him, making their little trade off again before he leaned forward to put it back in its place. He scooted back toward him a bit when he settled back down.

When Maruki’s warm, soapy hands wrapped over his skin he immediately tensed and reached up to put his hand over his neck.

Maruki's smile was evident in his voice. “You don’t have to be so self-conscious. I know you’re keyed up, just try to relax.”

Somehow that didn’t really make him feel better, but he dropped his hand anyway and tried to force the tension out of his shoulders. Maruki rubbing the soap over him both eased him but also only seemed to serve to make his arousal worse, which isn’t really what he wanted. Just like with breakfast earlier, this was... A part of him just wanted another domestic moment he’d never have with him again, to steal it and treasure the memory long after this shared heat was over and bygone. But his body was refusing to let him relax. Even if his cycle was kind enough to let him have breakfast, it apparently would not let him have this. He shook his head and sighed, exasperated.

“Frustrated?” Maruki asked, his hands flat against the bend of his back, under his shoulder blades.

“My…” Akira started, resisting the urge to fidget with bangs that were no longer in his face, “I just wanted to relax with you, but...my body just won’t cooperate.”

“You _are_ in heat,” he replied, his hands staying where they were.

“I know, but I was…” he started and hesitated, irritated that he was flustered talking about this out loud. Calm down, he knows about omega heats and he’s a psychologist. And he was a friend. And he _just_ knotted him not half an hour ago! There isn’t really a better person _to_ talk to about this. He fidgeted with his hands, “Getting your knot felt like exactly what I needed, so I don’t understand why I’m still...like this.”

Maruki was silent a moment, his hands still not moving. Akira felt one of his fingers tap against his back, and then he spoke. “As I mentioned before, a knot will sharply reduce the heat, but it doesn’t work like a switch. You’re still going to have a few more waves before the cycle ends.”

Akira eased his shoulders a little. Maruki continued as he started moving is hands again, “I know that popular media likes to depict knotting as a kind of magical cure for heats just like it presents a mate bite as everything from an instant feeling of all encompassing love or the best sexual experience someone can have, but nothing is that instantaneous in reality. Was that what you were expecting?”

 _Did Maruki know what it felt like to mark someone?_ He didn’t really want to know the answer to that and he tried to keep his mind back on track as he felt water cascading down his back to clean it off. Actually, no, he knew he hadn’t. There were far too many complications if he had marked Rumi that weren’t present. There was no way he’d be able to walk away from her like he claimed he did and be the way that he is if he'd marked her. Putting that question to bed made him feel better, despite the mild guilt of taking any pleasure in it.

“Well, I wasn’t really thinking much at the time,” he admitted, moving back to the topic at hand.

He heard a hum come from behind him. “And now?”

“Maybe. I knew it would feel better than anything before, but it's all conceptual until you actually feel it.”

Maruki chuckled, running his hand down his back and Akira resisted the need to arch out of his touch when it felt ticklish.

“That is true,” he mused.

“Does a rut feel the same?” Akira asked.

Maruki was silent for a little bit, his hands still on Akira’s skin again. Eventually he spoke up, “A rut is the same for a heat in that no two people experience them the same way. I didn’t really have, ah, any ruts per say when I was in high school. My mind was so preoccupied with school and my hobbies, and it seemed my body was willing to capitulate those fixations.” He laughed before continuing, “But the ones I have had were...well, they seem to be triggered primarily by an abnormal amount of stress and having no real way at the time to vent that stress.”

Akira hummed.

“How a rut can funnel anxious or negative emotions and twist them to be sexual is pretty interesting, but no less dangerous,” Maruki continued, his fingers moving idly in patterns over his skin. “I’m...glad no one saw what I was like then. I’m sure I looked like a madman.” He chuckled though there didn’t really sound like there was any humor in it.

“I don’t...like not feeling like I’m in control of myself,” Akira admitted.

“Neither do I,” Maruki agreed.

Akira furrowed his brow momentarily, Maruki’s hands having made their way up to his shoulders.

“There, now you feel relaxed...”

Akira’s mind was already somewhere else when he said, “I don’t regret that it happened here, though.”

Maruki’s hands stilled, but he didn’t comment, so Akira added, tilting his chin up a bit. “Of all the alphas I know, I wouldn’t prefer any of them over you.”

“Kurusu-kun…”

Akira chuckled, turning his head and shoulders a bit to look back at Maruki, who looked to have gained the tension that he’d massaged out of Akira. “It’s ‘Kurusu-kun’ even here?”

Maruki was so sweet and earnest. Despite the nervousness Akira felt about his crush, some of that was being worn away the longer they spent together. In its place was the other primary mode he felt around Maruki that didn’t get to show itself very often: the need to tease him.

Maruki huffed, but the slight smile hinted that he wasn’t offended, “It’s too difficult to say if I’m otherwise...distracted.”

He hummed, “A convenient excuse…”

Maruki tightened his grip on his shoulders a little bit, his smile growing into a smirk, “And, I know that you like it.”

Akira tried to fight the flush and the flustered expression before it could appear, but it managed to break through despite his efforts. Maruki squeezed his shoulders and eased his grip. He chuckled and said, “I haven’t forgotten you calling me a pervert on the phone. I can’t believe you said that!”

Akira laughed, “You were out of breath!”

“And _that’s_ the first thing that comes to your mind?” he replied, bewildered and amused in equal measure. “You saw me run out of the cafe!”

Akira just shrugged and Maruki sighed, “Teenage boys…”

“What’s the saying about the weird old psychologist?”

Maruki chuckled, “A Freudian slip? He had a lot of theories, not many of them very good, but it’s thanks to him we know about the unconscious and subconscious mind.” His hands eased off his shoulders and back down to his back and Akira’s eyes closed a moment, enjoying the feeling. “If we didn’t have Freud, we wouldn’t have Jung, and if we didn’t have Jung, we wouldn’t have cognitive psience.”

Akira hummed, opening his eyes again. Maruki reached over and gently pinched at his cheek, similarly to how Akira had done to him earlier, “So, even if psychology as a science was hampered by his ideas about psychosexual development and dream reading, you should still thank him for that.”

“What were some of his debunked ideas?” Akira asked, turning more bodily to better see Maruki, folding his legs up so he could lean against them, his arms over his knees. “I think I remember something about fruit in your dreams symbolizing omegas.”

Maruki sighed, “Dream interpretation is certainly a valid area of research, but he had such rigid and unhelpful definitions for symbols and events that none of it could truly help anyone. ‘If an omega dreams of...an avocado pit being swallowed by a snake, then they will get pregnant during their next heat cycle.’ Or ‘if a beta dreams that he chokes on a peach pit, he has knot-envy.’ Things like that.”

Akira snickered, “Big seeds are big knots, then? Let me guess: he was an alpha.”

Maruki laughed in turn and replied with a measure of sarcasm, “Ohh, could you tell?”

They both shared a laugh over the funny idea that the theories of a man could so easily be used against him before quieting down. Maruki patted against his back, the wet skin making the sound louder than it felt, “So, how’s your...condition?”

Akira shifted his toes along the bend where the wall met the bottom of the tub, “Well you’re naked and touching me, and we just talked about knots, so…”

Maruki cleared his throat and glanced away, his face coloring a little. He withdrew his hand and flipped the drain switch so the water could start to recede. He bent his knees a bit in preparation to stand. “Well...let’s rinse off, shall we?"

Akira only barely managed to resist trying to suck off Maruki in the shower and his patience was rewarded after the both of them had rinsed off, Maruki making out with him as he jerked him off. Even though he kept him from returning the favor when he was absolutely hard enough to get something out of it, Akira did feel a little better afterward regardless. He was clean, spent, and he’d managed a conversation with Maruki again despite the heat, and not about it specifically either, so despite his lingering irritation, he felt good.

After drying off and getting changed, they sat down on the couch again and Maruki reapplied the cream for his bruising, this time applying all of it on Akira’s request. Despite the dim hope from his heated brain, it did not lead to anything else, and since his normal brain was still at a higher function than the other, he was fine with that.

Most of the rest of the day was spent chatting, watching tv, or dealing with the heat. They had even managed to squeeze in a movie without interruptions while eating dinner but not too long after they finished eating did Akira's attention start to wane. The film was less distracting than it needed to be and his attention was split between watching a woman struggle between pursuing her own desires and what society expects of her and the part of his brain that wanted to cuddle up to the older man next to him. By the time the film ended, it was a relief that when Maruki finished cleaning up, he must have noticed Akira’s struggling because the first thing he did was sit down beside him and scent him.

The sex that night, and the knot he finally didn’t have to beg for, was just as good as the first time, and when he woke up beside Maruki, he realized he’d slept through the night with no problem. His throat only barely ached, and he didn’t feel uncomfortably antsy and horny. He sighed with relief, rolling on to his side and laying his head against Maruki’s chest, listening to his heart beat.

His heat had broken, and about as early as it seemed it would. He smiled to himself, finally feeling that content feeling he’d been longing for, and despite the relief of being over a heat, like being over a nearly debilitating flu, there was something different this time. He hadn’t been alone for days by himself, and he was spared the humiliation of having a stranger tasked with checking in on him every so often at a heat house. Sharing a heat with someone you trust...an alpha that doesn’t take advantage of the opportunity… He tried not to immediately think about the fact that he had no idea when he’d feel this way again.

The steady breathing under him shifted sharply and he moved his head, pushing himself up on to his forearm as Maruki reached up to rub at his eyes. Akira smiled to himself, noticing that he’d forgotten to shave again yesterday, his facial hair filling in even more.

"Good morning,” he said in a quiet voice, dismissing the desire to kiss him the second he woke up. He wasn’t in heat anymore, and he didn’t want to make Maruki uncomfortable.

Maruki groaned and turned his face to look at Akira and stretched a bit, “Good morning.” He let his arms fall back down, “How do you feel?”

“Back to normal, I think,” Akira admitted and Maruki’s eyebrows raised a moment.

“Oh, you feel better? Good,” he said, relaxing his face back into a soft, tired smile. “Did you...sleep well?”

Akira smirked briefly before pushing himself up on to his hands. “Of course I did.”

Maruki sighed with a good-natured smile, his tone a little more reserved, “Good.”

A length of silence passed between them, like neither one of them wanted to break the little bubble that had formed around the apartment since Maruki had brought Akira inside. Akira swallowed.

“So…”

He felt a hand pat against his hair and his eyes moved to meet the gaze directed at him.

“Let’s make breakfast for now.”

Another hour or so in their little world? Akira nodded, trying not to look too eager as he moved and stepped out of bed.

\---

Maruki struggled to remember the last time he’d cooked for anyone this many times in a row. Sipping wonderfully brewed coffee over breakfast with someone else who enjoyed the food he'd made is an experience he hadn’t really had in a very long time, and he knew deep in his heart that he was going to miss this. It stirred the domesticity he longed for and abandoned, or at least he thought he had until he noticed the comfortable feeling coming over him the longer Akira stayed. It was stupid, really, loneliness wasn’t a difficult thing for Maruki to cope with. He’d always been very comfortable by himself, but there was something special about spending pockets of time with another person, intimately or otherwise.

If Akira talking to Sojiro on the phone wasn’t enough to snap him back to reality, however, it was seeing him walk back into his living room dressed in his clean and dry academy uniform that served to douse him with proverbial cold water, the moral and ethical arguments coming back to him with a bone to pick. He’d managed to pull a curtain over them when he’d walked back with those pills--

Oh the pills.

He walked into the bathroom and pulled the plastic bottle down. He didn’t...really need these. He wasn’t living with an omega, and the likelihood of him giving into an omega in heat, let alone being near one at all for the opportunity to even be possible, was already so low. He’d probably met his decennial alpha fantasy sex scenario quota within the last few days anyway.

He walked back into the living room as Akira pulled his collar down and pressed the lapels on his jacket flat. He looked up as Maruki walked over and offered him the plastic bottle.

“You should...take this,” he said, clearing his throat to try and get the tightness out of his voice. “Not, _take_ them take them, but, hold on to them. Keep them in case you have an emergency later on.”

Akira looked at the label and nodded. “I just need to take one as soon as I can after a knot?” he asked, then his eyes got a little bigger for a moment before he looked serious, “Should I have taken one last night?”

Maruki shook his head, grabbing the opportunity to escape the possessive thoughts from cropping up again, “No, the first one was still in effect. The latest you should take it after having unprotected sex is up to 48 hours. Anything after that it may not be able to prevent.”

He received a nod of understanding as the pills were pocketed it in his pants pocket.

“I...don’t recommend doing something like this any time soon, even if that makes me a hypocrite,” Maruki couldn’t help but add, a tug in his chest telling him to dissuade him from unprotected sex. As much as he was certain Akira wouldn’t take the pills as a sign to do whatever dangerous thing he wanted, he was still a teenager. He couldn’t be too sure, so, it was best to be overly safe. At least that was the one and only excuse he was going to convince himself he had for saying so.

He pulled his coat on as Akira fidgeted with his hair, fluffing out one side before rubbing it down again. “I don’t mind if I benefit from your hypocrisy,” he said bluntly.

“Huh! Yeah I bet you don’t,” Maruki muttered, stepping back into the foyer. He realized that Akira didn’t have a coat on when he was dropped off, just his school jacket, and offered him the scarf he was about to put on. “Here. Do you want a coat?”

Akira looked at the scarf for a moment before taking it and wrapping it around his neck. “No...this is fine,” he said, the snark from a moment ago melting away.

“Are you sure?”

Akira nodded, putting his hands in his pockets as he turned to glance back into the apartment.

Maruki looked at him for a moment before turning around and grabbing his keys. “My car will take a little bit to heat up, but it shouldn’t be too cold for too long. Are ou ready?”

Once Akira was back to attention and affirmed, he turned the knob for his front door and they exited into the hallway.

The streets in the Yongen-Jaiyan neighborhood were too narrow to fit street cars, so he parallel parked nearby. He could just see the beginning of the small, tight row of buildings receding down into the neighborhood, pedestrians walking in and out on the narrow streets to the sidewalk to get to the greater city area. Akira didn’t immediately get out of the car, but he did reach over and unbuckle his seatbelt.

Maruki kept the car running, if only so that the heat could continue until he knew he was going to get out.

He didn’t have to wait too long before Akira turned to look at him. “Thank you,” he started, an odd mixture of sincerity and something else in his eyes, “for taking care of me.”

Maruki blinked and smiled, “You’re welcome.”

“I...I don’t just mean the heat,” he clarified, his hands fidgeting in his lap a little bit.

Maruki closed his mouth and nodded. His bruises already looked better, and despite the heat still going yesterday, he had managed to to help him unwind a little bit. He'd been through something traumatic, after all, and even if Maruki had the nagging feeling that Akira wasn't processing it really, not like he had the opportunity to really do so anyway, he wanted to believe that he would hold up okay. “I just hope I could make you feel safe,” he said.

“You did,” Akira said, a weird twinge in his tone that set Maruki a little on edge.

“Kurusu-kun…”

Akira sat back in his seat, took a breath and let it go.

“If you need anything again, and I mean it,” Maruki said seriously, “If I can help, please ask.”

He nodded simply, glancing at his hands and pulling them apart. He turned his right hand a little, like he was surmising his knuckles that were still red from being beaten down.

Maruki waited a few more moments, “Are you afraid that--?”

“I’m not afraid,” Akira countered, gripping his hand into a fist before relaxing it. “I’m not afraid, I just don’t...know how all of this is going to work out.”

This boy was carrying so much on his shoulders. The world really wasn’t fair. Even if he hadn’t decided to mettle in the cognitive world, taking on the burdens of others and changing the hearts of people exploiting and abusing power, even if he hadn’t become what amounted to a super hero with his friends, the circumstances that led him to be here in the first place were so much of a burden for someone to handle already.

“Don’t forget about your support network when things are hard. Your friends, Sojiro, me, and everyone else, okay?” he told him, reaching over to take his shoulder. He squeezed it and Akira turned to him before raising his hand to put it over Maruki’s. He squeezed his hand in return and barely smiled.

“I know,” he said and when he pulled his hand back, so did Maruki.

“And I know it’s useless to point out but, you don’t _have_ to be a phantom thief,” Maruki pointed out.

Akira huffed and glanced at him with a wry smile, “That _was_ pretty useless, yeah.”

Maruki just smiled. He knew it wouldn’t stop him, but hoped that, perhaps, it could make it seem just the slightest bit less oppressive.

“Well, one day, you won’t have to worry about such stressful things,” he said, putting his hand back on the steering wheel.

“You sound certain.”

“I am.” Maruki knew he would be. If what he wanted to do with cognitive psience came to fruition… Akira would never go through anything remotely like he already has ever again.

Akira glanced at him, searching his face a moment before turning back and looking at the door.

“Oh!” he said, reaching up to take the scarf, but Maruki held out his hand.

“Keep it. Add it to your wardrobe. It looks good on you,” he suggested. He still had to walk to the coffee shop after all, and it was absolutely not about Akira having a reminder of him, a reminder of the last couple of days. Not at all. That wouldn’t be appropriate.

Akira leveled his gaze at him, his hand still on the scarf. He got that sharpness about his look then and he asked with a small quirk to his lips, “Will you scent it for me before I go?”

Maruki stared back at him for a moment. He hadn’t expected…that at all. He laughed then. Maybe he should have, after everything that’s happened. At least he could still tease. If anything should console him that he’s going to be all right, maybe it should be that he can still be intentionally cute.

“Are you going to hand it to me?” he asked.

The smile only grew. The smile he wanted to protect.

“No.”

Maruki smiled back and decided to humor him, leaning into his space to rub his neck against the scarf, de facto scenting Akira without technically doing it.

He would be all right. He would make sure of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for reading until the end!! I was hoping to do two illustrations for the last chapter but I ran out of time. I might come back to and post another later on, or doodle sketches, but either way it was a fun little challenge. I really enjoyed being able to make illustrations for my own fics. Hopefully I'll be able to keep that energy up for others later down the line~!


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